Media Note: Shumlin Whacks Associated Press Report at Press Conference

Upset by an Associated Press account of alleged cost overruns in the relocation of a state agency, Gov. Peter Shumlin ripped into the story Wednesday during his weekly press conference.

“Let me just say every once in a while there is something that is printed that isn’t true,” Shumlin said. “And that story is not true.”

AP Statehouse reporter Dave Gram wrote Monday that members of a House committee were told last year that the Agency of Natural Resources’ move to the National Life building in Montpelier would cost roughly $2 million. Recent estimates peg the cost of relocation and renovation at closer to $8.7 million — $3.5 million of which would be covered by National Life.

But according to Shumlin, that original estimate was never uttered by his administration.

“We never said that it would cost $2 million,” Shumlin said at the press conference, which was attended by Gram. “I don’t know where that number came from. I don’t deny it might’ve been said to the committee, but all I can tell you is it wasn’t said by us.”

Clearly prepared for the push-back, Shumlin then summoned Secretary of Administration Jeb Spaulding (pictured above at right with Shumlin) to the podium to deliver a blow-by-blow account of the state’s cost estimates. Spaulding said the administration’s earliest expectations last spring ranged from $6 to $10 million. A written estimate provided to the House Committee on Corrections and Institutions in July pegged it at $7.5 million, he said.