WHO: City Council of Minneapolis
WHAT: Voted to spend $2 million in stimulus funds on a vacant 99-year-old theater. By converting it into a center for dance, developers claim the project would create 48 permanent jobs.Meanwhile,less than $300,000 went to a company that wants to open a solar-energy-panel manufacturing plant that would create 360 jobs by 2011.Because the solar plant didn’t get more funding, its chief executive officer claimed he wouldn’t be able to open the plant.
WHY IT’S AN OUTRAGE: While zoos and aquariums are prohibited from receiving stimulus money, assumably because of their purely recreational value, a theater that would produce few jobs is receiving more money than a manufacturing plant. The use of government largesse isn’t even consistent when being doled out.
WHERE TO VENT: City Council of Minneapolis, (612) 673-2200.
