Lesley Stedman Weidenbener, writing for the Louisville Courier Press, has an article entitled Debate is over how to use $4.3 billion.
Step one will be figuring out who gets to decide how to use the money. Most of it is already confined to particular purposes, most notably roads, Medicaid, schools, and unemployment. But, within the parameters set by the federal government, lawmakers will have to resolve philosophical issues. Republicans don’t want to spend the money in a way that increases operating costs. As an initial salvo, House Democrats have voted to use $700 million of the stimulus money to supplant state Medicaid expenses, freeing up money to be used on higher education.
Ben Zion Hershberg and Antoinette Konzthe, writing for the Lousville Courier Journal, provide more detail on some of the school spending in the stimulus bill.
So far, it seems that money will primarily be spent on roads and schools. One downside I’m seeing is that the need to spend the money quickly will trump the need to spend the money differently — so we won’t see this rare opportunity used to rethink our general approaches to transportation or education. But maybe I’m wrong. A lot of this seems to be up in the air so far. Why am I envisioning raw meat thrown to a pack of ravenous dogs?
Yeah, I was a little disappointed to see that there doesn’t seem to be much stimulus money going to develop mass transit on a local level, and possibly improving rail travel nationally. If part of the point of this stimulus is/was to develop energy independence and the like…It’s also frankly a little baffling that there was a sop to the RV industry throw in at the last minute (thanks to Obama’s Elkhart stop I suppose) in the form of tax credits I believe for buying an RV. Yeah, let’s encourage the purchase of huge gas hogs…as for the unemploymed in Elkhart, couldn’t we have directed money for new job training, or hey, maybe retooled those RV plants to build passenger rail cars or something? I’m just brainstorming here…
I read that 25 million is dedicated to ‘untangling’ ( their word) the freight line routes going through and by-passing Chicago. It takes as long to haul freight from LA to Chicago as it does to by-pass Chicago to East Coast destinations. I would assume that part of the Chicago freight line tangle is in NW Indiana, if not most of it.
Infrastructure is the best thing to spend on, but as you pointed out, if it is to be true stimulus, it has to go for true shovel-ready projects, and the light rail is all pie in the sky to date.
I would like to see the state’s combination storm/sanitary sewers replaced, such as are found in Indianapolis. It’s enormously expensive, which is why cities put it off. The environmental benefit would be enormous.
Lou- I assume you are talking rail.
If so, $25 million wouldn’t do jack crap. You would need to acquire R/W, which is almost impossible in that area. That alone would consume the $25 million. Then you have to lay some track.
My objection to stormwater funding is petty and regional — I think Tippecanoe County has already bitten the bullet with respect to complying with stormwater regulations. I’d be annoyed to see other areas rewarded for procrastinating. (That doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea though.)
I doubt Tippecanoe County will find itself not feeding at the trough when the time comes. There’s always something else on the ‘wish list’ to spend money on.
But, if you want to object when a Libertarian goes and recommends spending on an environmental concern… :-)
A little role reversal from time to time keeps the wits sharper. But you’re right – Tippecanoe County, and any unit of government will find *something* to use available money on. And, frankly, when competing against other jurisdictions that will use the money if they don’t, they’d be fools not to. (“No thanks, we’ve got what we need. You can keep taxing us and give that money to the folks in Indianapolis instead.”)
As to rail, yesterday’s Politico reported that $8 billion in the stimulus package was reserved for high speed rail. Keep an eye on this because it is truly an historic step in modern rail history.
Also, Doug, have you thought about the historic relationship between hard economic times and great folk and blues music? Help us find the silver lining in all of this.
Mike Kole says:
Lou- I assume you are talking rail.
Yes,reconfigurating the Chicago railroad freight tracks around and through Chicago: 25 billion dollars,and that is only for start-up work. $25 million wouldn’t buy much,as you say.
Actually, it’s smart strategy for Obama to get much needed infrastructure done.Im sure there are other huge projects being started in the stimulus bill.
I wonder if we’ll see a modern day Woody Guthrie rise from these economic times.
Which made me think of Warren Zevon’s “Dirty Life & Times” for some reason. So here’s a YouTube version of it.
The title doesn’t give a broad enough view on what I wrote…
The primary emphasis is on how (not) to spend the stimulus monies at the state level.
http://nwi.com/articles/2009/02/08/opinion/forum/doc43a5d618eb829e6d86257554006359bc.txt