U.S. To Pay $400 Million Toward UN Renovation

A colossal waste of money. All the thieves and dictators do is spit in our face. Now we get to pay $400 million for more of it.

I strenuously object.

The U.N. General Assembly on Saturday approved a top-to-bottom renovation of its landmark Manhattan headquarters building that is expected to take seven years to complete at a cost of $1.9 billion.

Renovation was first envisioned in 2002, and the project was seen at that time as costing about $1 billion.

But the price tag has since soared, due mainly to construction delays, improvements focused on security, and a failed campaign to convince the New York state legislature to approve a new office building to provide temporary space for staff during the work.

Because of the New York lawmakers' opposition, planners decided they could make do with much less temporary space by stretching out the renovations and doing them just 10 stories at a time.

The project is to be financed by increases in the dues paid by all U.N. member nations on a sliding scale. The resolution gives governments a choice of paying their share all at once or in five yearly installments beginning in 2007.

That will put the poorest nations' share at a little under $2 million each. The United States, the world's biggest economy which picks up the tab for 22 percent of the regular U.N. budget, will pay more than $400 million.