Thursday, August 22, 2013

Where did the money go?

This is this first of maybe several entries about the state of my city's  finances.  First of all, the library.  Built for a reported $39m for 42,000 square feet.  I thought it would be interesting to compare to other similar constructions.

In 2000 the state's electorate passed prop 14 which established a $350m bond issue for building/upgrading libraries around the state.  Localities were able to submit grant requests to grab their share.  Walnut Creek's application was rejected, more on that if I can find out why, but in the meantime Look at this:

State's site on this process: http://www.library.ca.gov/grants/lba2000/

it is being administered by the state librarian.  I have yet to find Walnut Creek's application but I did find this interesting bit.  Look at what other libraries cost for similar square footage:

http://www.library.ca.gov/grants/lba2000/docs/CAPubLibBldgConstCosts.xls

Just picking off a couple obvious examples, I see:

  •  Alameda main : 48k sq ft for $25m
  • Camarillo main: 65k sq ft for $27m
  • San Mateo main: 93k sq ft for $55m
I guess the San Mateo figure shows that people will spend a lot but the Alameda numbers are nearby and might be a better comp.

So why did the Walnut Creek library cost $39m?   And why did their application get rejected which lead the city to pay for it?  And where did they get the money. I'm looking.

No comments: