States and Cities in Scramble for Stimulus Cash

[Pirate Smile]

Source: The New York Times

Well before President Obama’s stimulus package completed its tortuous path through Congress last week, state and local officials facing multimillion-dollar budget deficits, crumbling infrastructure and the prospect of massive reductions in services were already jockeying for the upper hand in deciding how the money should be spent.

In Missouri, the Department of Transportation says that within 180 days of Mr. Obama’s signing the legislation it is prepared to begin 34 transportation projects, costing $510 million and with the promise of 14,000 jobs.
Echoing the thoughts of many political leaders across the country, Mayor Frank C. Ortis of Pembroke Pines, Fla., says simply, “We have a wish list.” And high on that list is money to repair aging sewer pipes in his city of 150,000.

When Mr. Obama signs the stimulus bill in Denver on Tuesday, it will release the biggest influx of federal dollars since the days of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Great Society program. But it also is expected to set off a multitude of political battles across the map — between governors and legislatures, state capitols and city halls, and even between neighboring municipalities.

Because the effectiveness of any stimulus plan depends on the money being spent quickly, whether state and local governments can work through the rules and resolve any disputes will have a large impact on the success Mr. Obama’s plan has in lifting the economy.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/16/us/politics/16stimulus.html?hp

[DebbieCDC]

1. You can bet the puke districts that voted AGAINST the stim will have their hand out first

They should get nothing. Then see if they are re-elected or not. I'd start with Boner's district. Not one red cent. They elected him, now let them live with the consequences. My home state sure got stupid over the years. Time for a wake up call.

[rpannier]

8. From Crooks and liars

Rep. John Mica was gushing after the House of Representatives voted Friday to pass the big stimulus plan.

"I applaud President Obama's recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America's future," the Florida Republican beamed in a press release.

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, also had nice things to say in a press release.

Young boasted that he "won a victory for the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small business owners last night in H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."

[doc03]

2. I read about the plans my county has for the money today

in the paper. They mentioned three projects that can be started immediately. One project will hook up a village to the county sewage system. They said if the county had to pay for the project that it would have have cost the residents over $100 a month for sewage and water. But if the money comes from the Stimulus plan it will only cost people $40 to $50 a month. There will also be an environmental bonus it will eliminate hundreds of poor or non existent septic systems, some homes in that village just have a pipe running into the creek. They also have plans for running city water to a rural area and plans for an improvement on a I 70 interchange.

[The Brethren]

3. According to today's news,

my state will be getting very little of stimulus money compared to other states, even though it has been noted that our state has made sure to have a lot of "shovel ready" projects set up for jobs. And I'm rather pissed at the news for a number of reasons.

But if they're not going to give out $787 billion dollars equally amongst the states, then I think they should've broken the amount down by which state pays the most by taxpayers....who are the ones who will be covering the costs for this bill. And since both the Wall Street Bailout bill, costing $850 billion dollars and this bill, totaling over a trillion dollars, which will be entered into the same fiscal year for taxpayers, I think that would've been a little more fair to taxpayers.



The Stimulus Plan ("American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009"): Orig. House version -- http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryBill01-15-09.pdf , House spreadsheet -- http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pV-c6t5fOVmNorqMpHvnCMw ; Senate version -- http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_02_02_The_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009.pdf ; and Senate compromise -- http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1 , Text and $$$ details of Senate compromise -- http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_02_08_UPDATED_Appropriations_Provisions_of_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act.pdf?CFID=4043629&CFTOKEN=40573040 in addition to -- http://readthestimulus.org/amdth1.pdf ; along with -- http://www.readthestimulus.org/ .

[Better Believe It]

4. There won't be nearly enough money to go around. We need a new

stimulus package worth at least 200 billion that will actually have a powerful impact on the economy.

The nations mayors have put forward such a package.

It was ignored by Pelosi and Reid in an effort to appease Republicans.

That strategy didn't work out very well, did it?

So now we have a recovery package that won't recover the economy.

Obama will have to go back for much more .... sooner than later.

[The Brethren]

7. Well said. But enough is only part of the problem.

This so called "stimulus plan" is not a stimulus plan. It's an everything plan....some job stimulation, as well as pork/special interest/pet projects. And if money is not carefully audited with that information made accessible to the public - all details, then how do we actually know that all the money has been used as intended? Some people maybe that trusting, but I'm not. I'm royally ticked off at what this bill actually is and how much this is costing.

Not to mention what will likely happen after this to inflation and the dollar value etc. On the books we are broke. As in Hammer Time broke. We can't even afford to pay off our outrageous deficit. Not to mention China financially owns our butts....which a lot of people don't want to hear, but it's true.

And very few at the top are talking about the different factors that got us to this point -- and I'm not talking about one party blaming the other. So even if, by chance, this "stimulus plan" worked, and ASAP, then if we don't address the causes, we'll likely go right back to where are with an even bigger debt.

I don’t believe spending our way out of this will work, not in the long run....or even in the short run if things are not handled as carefully as possible. Even then, the economic cycle can't work it's way through at this point with just spending, there are too other factors involved for the economy to balance out as quickly as we need it to.



The Stimulus Plan ("American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009"): Orig. House version -- http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryBill01-15-09.pdf , House spreadsheet -- http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pV-c6t5fOVmNorqMpHvnCMw ; Senate version -- http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_02_02_The_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009.pdf ; and Senate compromise -- http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1 , Text and $$$ details of Senate compromise -- http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_02_08_UPDATED_Appropriations_Provisions_of_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act.pdf?CFID=4043629&CFTOKEN=40573040 in addition to -- http://readthestimulus.org/amdth1.pdf ; along with -- http://www.readthestimulus.org/ .

[quaker bill]

10. Infrastructure is our largest deficit

Republicans have been allowing the infrastructure to rot and rust away. People tend to look at the obvious number, the national debt, and conclude that this is our true deficit, it is not. A far larger deficit exists in infrastructure construction and deferred maintenance, perhaps as large as 22 trillion dollars.

To afford the massive defense buildup and our various wars of choice over the last 28 years, republicans have plundered the infrastructure by vastly reduced spending on construction and maintenance. This act reduced the size of the perceived deficit (national debt) to a still massive, but deceptively low level. The 200 billion or so in this package which is headed in that direction will only scratch the surface, be quickly absorbed, and not even fully address critical demands.

[Pirate Smile]

5. What state?

[The Brethren]

9. Thank you for asking, but I don't discuss what state I live in online.

In general terms, I live in the South West region.

But according to the first set of projections in the news when the orig. house version came out, a graph of the US was given to show how approx. each state would receive their portion of the plan compared to others, if that version had passed. And my state was about low to mid range for funding. So it looks like the final version isn't all that far off from the house version.

Btw, unless the quotas in money has changed since the House version, CA and Texas were slotted to be some of the few states to receive the largest portion of the stimulus bill. They'll probably be happy to hear that.



The Stimulus Plan ("American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009"): Orig. House version -- http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/RecoveryBill01-15-09.pdf , House spreadsheet -- http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pV-c6t5fOVmNorqMpHvnCMw ; Senate version -- http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_02_02_The_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act_of_2009.pdf ; and Senate compromise -- http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-1 , Text and $$$ details of Senate compromise -- http://appropriations.senate.gov/News/2009_02_08_UPDATED_Appropriations_Provisions_of_American_Recovery_and_Reinvestment_Act.pdf?CFID=4043629&CFTOKEN=40573040 in addition to -- http://readthestimulus.org/amdth1.pdf ; along with -- http://www.readthestimulus.org/ .

[rpannier]

6. Not a dime to any place represented by a republikan house member

Then maybe they'll be shown the door in 2010

[doc03]

11. I'm all for that, give the pigs something

squeal about.

[rpannier]

12. If they think it's a monumental waste of money

Then put your money where your mouth is and don't take it