At 14 stories tall, the Docking State Office Building is one of the largest and oldest workplaces in the state of Kansas. It is also largely empty, despite its prime location across from the Capitol.
Kansas officials plan to spend $60 million on the federal pandemic relief budget to fund its demolition and upgrade it with a slender three-story construction designed to host meetings and events.
State officials classified the assignment as a “public fitness service” in a report to the U. S. Treasury Department. The U. S. Department of Health and Prevention describes its plans for money. While this is possibly exaggerated, it’s probably fine under the American Rescue Plan Act, a radical law. signed by President Joe Biden last year providing excellent flexibility for $350 billion in state and local government aid.
The aid promoted through Democrats in Congress as an unprecedented infusion for cash-strapped governments to respond to the virus, rebuild their economies and strengthen their finances. But this happened when state tax revenues were already recovering, leaving many states with record surpluses and enviable decisions about what to do with all the money.
Relatively little of the federal aid has gone to classic public fitness purposes, according to an Associated Press review of reports filed in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Much more has been spent on public infrastructure. States invest money in water, sewer and high-speed projects, as required by law in particular. But the AP found they were also spending billions of dollars on roads, bridges, sidewalks, airports, railroads and school buildings. Campuses and government agencies, justifying everything thanks to the generous flexibility of the federal government.
“To be absolutely honest, we didn’t want it,” Kansas House Appropriations Committee Chairman Troy Waymaster said, referring to the $1. 6 billion the state received.
But the pier construction wants to be demolished, he said, and the new area for events and gatherings could allow for greater social distancing in the event of a resurgence of COVID-19 or a prolonged pandemic.
If “construction itself can be used only during a pandemic, that somehow justifies using the ARPA budget for renovation or infrastructure projects,” said Waymaster, a Republican.
A Kansas conservation organization has asked a court to block the demolition, arguing that Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration failed to adhere to proper procedures for demolishing the 65-year-old design that was added to the National Register of Historic Places earlier this year.
“There are wrong moves here to demolish what is a perfectly compatible building,” said Paul Post, a retired Topeka attorney and member of the conservation group Plains Modern.
Recently, all states were asked to file annual reports with the Treasury Department detailing their progress in the U. S. bailout. U. S. The documents show that states have allocated expenditures on about three-quarters of their funds, particularly from a slow initial pace.
Treasury has asked states to classify projects into seven broad categories, with 83 subcategories. You can budget if you determine until the end of 2026 that the expenses do not meet the general rules of the law.
Governments reported more than $22 billion in planned spending for the Treasury’s water, sewer and broadband infrastructure category. But the PA knew a total of about $36 billion for infrastructure projects, nearly a quarter of all planned spending, adding roads, bridges, buildings and public works projects reported in other categories.
In contrast, governments reported less than $12 billion in planned spending in the Treasury’s public fitness category, though it was widely interpreted to also include pieces like “community violence interventions,” addiction services, and COVID-19 assistance for small businesses.
Some state officials may not have to use the public fitness aid budget because they had other federal investment resources for vaccines, testing and fitness initiatives. For example, a separate segment of the U. S. bailout was a separate segment of the U. S. bailout. departments. But the giant budget influx would likely have raised sustainability considerations as well.
While public fitness has traditionally been underfunded, “many fitness officials have struggled to get their legislators and bosses to engage in hiring other people long-term because it’s one-time money,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.
Some states have reported failing to spend on public fitness with the discretionary budget of their U. S. bailout. These include Florida, which won the fourth-largest allocation from the federal government. Instead, Florida spent $1. 8 billion on the highway, $1. 9 billion on water projects and more than $2. 5 billion on structure and public buildings, in addition to the Capitol, college services and K-12 schools, according to the AP analysis.
The state’s water projects have up to $700 million for a grant program to combat climate change-related flooding. a domain devastated by a typhoon triggered by Hurricane Irma in 2017.
The purpose of the task is to “protect homes and businesses from long-term typhoon waves and emerging sea levels,” said Sonia Brubaker, Miami’s chief resilience officer.
Louisiana also listed any planned spending in the Consolidated Revenue Fund’s public fitness category. But the state plans to spend $863 million on roads and bridges, $750 million on water and sewer infrastructure and $27 million on improvements to the domed stadium where Orleans’ New Los Santos play soccer.
Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards said the stadium subsidy is critical “to keeping this venue competitive. “
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, also championed $46 million in grants to improve bleachers, streets, restrooms and infrastructure on his state’s racetracks. “Motorsport is part of the fabric of North Carolina,” he said earlier this year.
Inmates in Alabama sued the Treasury Department in an attempt to prevent the state from spending $400 million on criminal construction. Although the state says all is well with the Treasury’s flexible rules, the lawsuit argues that this is a “gross and unlawful abuse” of pandemic relief. funds.
A coalition of more than two dozen groups of structures, businesses and governments is pushing Congress to give even more leeway to use pandemic aid on transportation projects.
“Having a smart infrastructure that allows us all to live and thrive” ultimately comes down to “public health,” said Stan Brown, as well as president of the American Public Works Association.
Missouri, which has yet to rank as the top of its projects, is also making a huge investment in infrastructure by allocating millions of dollars to building networked public schools and universities. The University of Missouri’s NextGen Precision Health initiative will save about $105 million for improvements, adding to complete the fourth site of a new construction named in honor of retired U. S. Senator Missouri S. U. S. Roy Blunt.
“A lot of this was already going to happen,” though no express timeline was set, university spokesman Christian Basi said. Very useful thing for us.
Like Missouri, Utah has indexed $90 million for a new center for intellectual fitness studies as a replacement for lost profits from government services. Construction will begin next year on the building, which will house studies on suicide and the effect of social isolation on children with intellectual fitness, among other things.
The planned paintings align perfectly with the intent of federal aid, Mark Rapaport, executive director of the University of Utah’s Huntsman Mental Health Institute.
“A lot of what we’re doing is akin to resolving disruptions that have been exacerbated during the pandemic itself,” he said.
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