Hard for me to answer that question since this item on the Sioux Falls city council informational meeting has no attached documents;
• Sioux Falls for all initiative
Doesn’t that sound lovely?
If you do a little digging and talk to a few moles and rats at city hall you get another picture (these items are of course speculation from said rats and moles);
• The city has already spent some of the money on paying off debt, which seems odd since most of these bonds have a 2% interest rate. While I am strongly against cities borrowing money anyway, I think the wise move would have been spending that money on helping people impacted by the pandemic instead of bond investors.
• There is supposedly around $22 million that still needs to be spent
Here are the items that they ‘might’ spend it on;
• $4 million on a decorative roof for the Pavilion
• Ice rink at Falls Park
• Hayward Park improvements
• 2nd Police Precinct
• Other projects in the mayor’s wish list.
Honestly, I think it would be difficult determining on how we should spend the money, and I think a large chunk of covid stimulus money is a complete waste, but one city official said it best, ‘Maybe we should put it away for a rainy day?’
Sure.
And does the city council even have a say in the matter? Well according to city charter, funding is their duty, not the mayor so why is this coming from his office?
There is also the little secret that while the Triage Center building fund is okay, there is no real plan for funding the operating costs. Maybe this would be a good place to spend it?
I fully understand it is hard to know what to do with Federal funding, but if I was a thinking man, I wouldn’t spend pandemic money on roofs and ice. Just saying.