City council finishes first review of CIP budget - KTIV News 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and Sports

Sioux City's city council finished their first read through of the 540 page capital improvements budget, Wednesday. Called the CIP for short, the book contains five years of department funding requests for repairs, purchases or construction.

The new CIP is for fiscal years 2014 to 2018. It totals almost $272 million of expense. That's up about $30 million from the previous approved five year plan.

Total proposed expense for 2014 alone is almost $72 million. That's up about 86% compared to 2013.

City officials say the jumps are from $25 million TIF dollars, set aside to help develop a downtown casino.

"The majority of this CIP is based upon whether we have to fund a casino or not. The rest of it is pretty much a maintenance level deal, where it's probably where we need to be right now," said Sioux City Mayor Bob Scott.

Before closing their books for the day, the city council reviewed proposals for annual bridge repairs.             

They're looking at two options for fiscal year 2014. About $1.25 million for either the Dearborn Avenue bridge over Perry Creek or the 38th Street bridge, also over Perry Creek.

City officials say a big factor in choosing a bridge, depends on which qualifies for DOT dollars to cut city cost.

The city council will meet next Wednesday morning to review a few of the CIP funding proposals they earmarked. They'll vote to approve the finalized budget February 25th.