What to do with $1.8 million?

3/27/11

The $1.8 million question: What does the City do with it?

See: http://weblink.ci.shorewood.mn.us/weblink8/0/doc/152341/Electronic.aspx for the 10-year financial plan discussion packet for the Council's 3/28 meeting. Page 3 speaks to the $1.8 million. The meeting is a council work session the 28th at 600pm and open to the public.

When the City sold its liquor stores, it ended up with a little over $900,000 in cash. Since then, and according to the recommendation of the council members who advocated the sale, $40,000 has been transferred from this fund each year to the General Fund. Not by coincidence, this is within a few dollars of the amount the City has been transferring from the General Fund to the Parks Capital Fund each year. So, in essence, the liquor store money has been put to use funding parks improvements.

In 2009, Council decided to move $1.0 million in excess reserves from the Sanitary Sewer Fund to an Infrastructure Fund. The idea was that this excess would be used to fund one-time projects instead of relying on tax increases. Last year, Council decided to combine the Liquor Fund with the Infrastructure Fund and thus, there is $1.8 million available to be put to good use.

Back to the opening question.

Should the City continue to use some of the fund for parks? This makes sense in that the major source of parks capital funds has dried up as the source was fees charged in conjunction with new development, something that has been largely absent recently and shows no sign of returning in any large way. Perhaps endowing the Parks Capital Fund to cover the next 10 years' of capital expenditures would be a good investment?

Should the City use some of the fund for its Long-Range Road Improvement plan? Currently, this Plan assumes tax increases as the funding source to keep it solvent.

Should the City acquire property at Cty19 and Smithtown Rd. in anticipation of developing this corner as a mixed use or other gateway to Shorewood? This is currently being discussed in Council and the Planning Commission. Having land available would simplify and make a development of this corner attractive to developers when the market for such development recovers.

Should the City use some of the fund to build trails? There's a Trail Committee looking into trail needs right now (see previous blogs on this topic).

The real question is: What do you, the residents of Shorewood, want to do with your money?

The Insider wants to hear from you.

Happy reading!
The Insider