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| Photo Credit: AP. |
(AP) - Standing 14 stories tall, the Docking State Office Building is one of Kansas’ largest and oldest state workplaces. It’s also largely vacant, despite a prime location across from the Capitol.
So Kansas
officials are planning to spend $60 million of federal pandemic relief funds to
help finance its demolition and replace it with a slimmed-down, three-story
building designed to host meetings and events.
State
officials categorized the project as a “public health service” in a report to
the U.S. Treasury Department laying out their plans for the money. Though that
may be a stretch, it’s likely fine under the American Rescue Plan act — a
sweeping law signed by President Joe Biden last year that provides broad
flexibility for $350 billion of aid to states and local governments.
The aid was
promoted by Democrats in Congress as an unprecedented infusion for cash-strapped
governments to respond to the virus, rebuild their economies and shore up their
finances. But it came as state tax revenues already were rebounding, 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 toward traditional public health purposes,
according to an Associated Press review of reports filed by all 50 states and
the District of Columbia. Significantly more has gone toward public infrastructure.
States are pouring money into water, sewer and high-speed internet projects, as
specifically envisioned by the law. But the AP found that they’re also spending
billions of dollars on roads, bridges, sidewalks, airports, rail lines and
buildings at college campuses and government agencies — justifying all of it
under the federal government’s generous flexibility.
“We didn’t need it, to be quite honest,” said
Kansas House Appropriations Committee Chairman Troy Waymaster, referring to the
$1.6 billion the state received.
But the
Docking building does need to come down, he said, and the new space for events
and meetings could allow better social distancing during a COVID-19 resurgence
or future pandemic.
If “the
building itself could be used during a pandemic, then it somewhat justifies the
use of ARPA funds for the renovation or infrastructure projects,” said
Waymaster, a Republican.
A Kansas
preservationist group has asked a court to block the demolition, arguing that
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s administration hasn’t followed proper procedures
to tear down the 65-year-old structure that was added to the National Register
of Historic Places earlier this year.
“There’s
some wrongheaded action going on here to demolish what really is a perfectly
suitable building,” said Paul Post, a retired Topeka attorney and member of the
Plains Modern preservationist group.
All states
recently were required to file annual reports with the Treasury Department
detailing their progress under the American Rescue Plan. The documents show
states have planned expenditures for about three-fourths of their funds. up
significantly from an initial slow pace.
The Treasury
asked states to classify projects in seven general categories, with 83 subcategories.
It can recoup funds if it determines by the end of 2026 that spending fell outside
the law’s wide guidelines.
Governments
reported more than $22 billion of planned expenditures for the Treasury’s
infrastructure category of water, sewer and broadband. But the AP identified a
total of about $36 billion for infrastructure projects — nearly one-quarter of
all planned expenditures — when including roads, bridges, buildings and public
works projects reported in other categories.
By contrast,
governments reported less than $12 billion of planned expenditures in the
Treasury’s public health category — even though it was broadly construed to
also include such things as “community violence interventions,” substance use
services and COVID-19 aid to small businesses.
Some state
officials may have decided not to use the relief funds for public health
because they had other federal funding streams for vaccines, testing and health
initiatives. For example, a separate section of the American Rescue Plan provided
nearly $8 billion for state and local health departments. But the large influx
of funds may also have stirred concerns about sustainability.
Though
public health has historically been underfunded, “a lot of health officials
have struggled to get their policymakers and their bosses to commit to hiring
people for the long-term because it’s one-time money,” said Dr. Georges
Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.
Some states
reported no public health expenditures with their discretionary American Rescue
Plan funds. Those included Florida, which received the fourth largest allotment
from the federal government. Florida instead devoted $1.8 billion for highway,
$1.9 billion for water projects and more than $2.5 billion for construction and
maintenance of public buildings, including the Capitol, university facilities
and K-12 schools, according to the AP’s analysis.
The state’s
water initiatives include up to $700 million for a grant program to fight
flooding associated with climate change. The city of Miami was awarded about
$50 million for a half-dozen projects, including one that will nearly double
the height of a sea wall in an area devastated by a storm surge from Hurricane
Irma in 2017.
The goal of
the project is “to protect the residences and the businesses from future storm
surge and sea level rise,” said Sonia Brubaker, Miami’s chief resilience officer.
Louisiana
also listed no planned expenditures in the Treasury’s public health category.
But the state plans to spend $863 million on roads and bridges, $750 million on
water and sewer infrastructure and $27 million for improvements to the domed stadium
where the New Orleans Saints play football.
Democratic
Gov. John Bel Edwards said the stadium subsidy was critical “to keep that venue
competitive.”
North
Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, also defended $46 million of grants to
upgrade grandstands, walkways, bathrooms and infrastructure at racetracks
across his state. “Motorsports are part of the fabric of North Carolina,” he
said earlier this year.
Alabama
prisoners have sued the Treasury Department to try to stop the state from
spending $400 million on prison construction. Though the state agues it’s OK
under the Treasury’s flexible rules, the lawsuit contends it’s a “a gross and
illegal misuse” of pandemic relief funds.
A coalition
of more than two dozen construction, business and local government groups is
pressing Congress to grant even more leeway to use pandemic aid on
transportation projects.
“Having a
good infrastructure that allows us all to live and thrive” ultimately “leads
back into public health,” said Stan Brown, past president of the American
Public Works Association.
Missouri,
which has yet to categorize most of its projects, also is investing heavily in
infrastructure by directing hundreds of millions of dollars to buildings at
community colleges and public universities. The NextGen Precision Health
initiative at the University of Missouri will get nearly $105 million for
improvements that include finishing off the fourth floor of a new building
named for retiring U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt.
“A lot of
this was already going to happen,” although no specific timeline had been set,
said university spokesperson Christian Basi. “Then COVID hits, and then ARPA
funds are available. It’s coincidental odd timing, but it turned out to be a very,
very helpful thing for us.”
Like
Missouri, Utah categorized $90 million for a new mental health research
facility as a replacement of lost revenue for government services. Construction
is to begin next year on the building, which will host research on suicide and
the effect of social isolation on children’s mental health, among other things.
The planned
work aligns nicely with the intent of the federal aid, said Mark Rapaport, CEO
of the Huntsman Mental Health Institute at the University of Utah.
“A lot of
what we’re doing is directly related to tackling issues that have been
exacerbated by the pandemic itself,” he said.
Lieb
reported from Jefferson City, Missouri, and Harjai from Los Angeles. Harjai is
a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative.
Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places
journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.