Council shoots down ARPA infrastructure allocation

At the city council meeting this week, we debated a resolution I authored to reallocate $6 million of our ARPA funds to go toward our aging road infrastructure. We are currently on pace to replace our roads and underground utilities once every 200 years. We should be replacing them every 50 years. The money is currently proposed to go toward a host of non-profits in the community.

Instead of reallocating these funds as my resolution requested, my council colleagues instead amended my resolution to ask the state to fund our infrastructure problems.

Screenshot from WBAY story on my infrastructure resolution

There's nothing wrong with asking the state for more money. But it will not happen, my council colleagues know this, and admitted as much during the debate. The state gives money to local governments through the state budget and local governments have discretion in how to spend it. It is not the state's role to fund individual local infrastructure projects. So asking the state to take care of our problem is unserious, and as one other council member said, it's a "gimmick" that we know won't work.

While the mayor and some council members pointed out that residents did not ask for us to use ARPA funds for infrastructure, this is a red herring. Most residents don't think of infrastructure as a problem until it is bad enough it is already past the point it should have been replaced. The longer we stretch our infrastructure, the more costly to maintain it becomes. That's why sticking to an adequate replacement cycle is key. Providing quality infrastructure is one of the core responsibilities of local government and we are not keeping up with it. Pushing off our responsibility in hopes someone else will pay for it, shows a lack of willingness to address this issue by making tough decisions elsewhere in our budget.

We're already seeing other communities propose referendums to exceed their tax levy limits to fund their roads. Some others, including Appleton, are exploring other fees to help pay for roads. Ultimately the community will have to decide how we will fund these projects, because the path we are on is unsustainable as public works staff have been telling us for some time now. Over the last two years numerous road projects that need to be replaced, have been cancelled or pushed back several years or more.

My infrastructure resolution would have avoided $6 million in borrowing and the interest we would have paid back on it over the next 10 - 20 years. I've shared this chart before but it's a good reminder of where we are and how our overall city debt is impacting our road infrastructure program.

This chart shows how we've gone from paying cash for most of our roads to borrowing for most of them.

Just 15 years ago we were paying for nearly 90% of our road projects in cash with money from the general fund (tax dollars). Now, we're borrowing for more than 80% of those same projects and using general fund money to cover the interest. That's why road projects continue to get pushed off into the future and we are doing fewer of them.

My resolution impacts all residents in the city because we all pay in toward our infrastructure, whether it's our street being replaced or not. There is no other use of ARPA dollars that can do that. While my resolution alone was not enough to solve the problem, it was a missed opportunity to start to address these issues and I want the community to be aware of the situation we face and what choices will need to be made very soon.

Get In Touch

I am always available to answer questions at district15@appleton.org or (920) 419-1360. As always, agendas can be found on the agenda and meetings page of the city website. Meetings can be viewed live on the website or watched at a later date. Meetings are also open for anyone to attend in person and all meetings take place in the Common Council chambers on the 6th floor of City Hall, unless otherwise noted. 

Also connect with me on social media on Facebook and Twitter.