West Hartford's Piece Of The Obama Stimulus Pie

Published Feb. 23, 2009 at 10:33 p.m.

The total of cost of all of the projects submitted by Connecticut is $2,650,247,958

The total cost of all the projects submitted by West Hartford is $66,750,000 according to this report.

The people over at Stimulus Watch lets you see projects by State and Town

In the online report are the "shovel-ready" projects that the mayors of this state submitted in the 2008 U.S. Conference of Mayors report. You can click on a project to read (and add to) its description. You can also discuss the project and vote on whether you believe it is critical or not. For a more local view, you can drill down to projects in a particular city. Just choose a city from the following list.

Here's West Hartford's slice of the pie.

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Description			Jobs	Cost	Program Type	Vote Ratio
Arterial Street Reconstruction			40	$3,000,000	Streets/Roads	-2
Street pedestrian safety improvements			50	$2,500,000	Streets/Roads	-1
Street reconstruction			50	$2,000,000	CDBG	-4
Community Center Improvements			40	$1,000,000	CDBG	-5
Economic development streetscape			50	$1,000,000	CDBG	-10
Handicap accessibility			50	$1,000,000	CDBG	-2
Sewer improvements			40	$800,000	CDBG	2
Sidewalk replacement			40	$500,000	CDBG	-4
Housing Rehab.			50	$500,000	CDBG	0
Street light led upgrade			100	$4,500,000	Energy	-1
Fuel Cell installation rink/pool			90	$3,000,000	Energy	-4
Boiler Replacement schools			50	$2,750,000	Energy	2
School window replacemnt			50	$1,700,000	Energy	1
Vehicle replacement			10	$400,000	Energy	-3
Expansion of senior housing complex			300	$20,000,000	Housing	-3
fire station replacement			200	$10,500,000	Public Safety	2
public safety equipment			50	$2,500,000	Public Safety	7
Additional personel			10	$1,000,000	Public Safety	-3
school fiber optic improvements			85	$3,500,000	Schools	-3
School ventilation improvements			80	$2,400,000	Schools	0
school fire safety improvements			75	$2,200,000	Schools	4

...
Will those projects bring new jobs to West Hartford? Will they bring new business to West Hartford? Will they encourage consumer spending? Will someone who is laid off be able to work on these projects? Will these jobs prevent more layoffs? How soon can any of these projects actually be started and how soon would they be completed?

It looks like it will bring tax relief and allow us to rebuild and improve infrastructure.
It looks like some of the energy initiatives will save us some money in the long run with the installation of LED lighting and use of fuel cell technology.

President Obama has given Mayor Slifka (along with other mayors across the country) a very stern warning! Don't waste the money. So as long as we are getting it, let's make sure we get the most out of it.

On each project link you can vote as to whether these projects are critical or not...You can also post comments about the projects.

The website does have an "FAQ" page.

Below is an explanation of program types in this stimulus plan.

The Mayors Report lists ten "sectors" in need of federal funds. These sectors are federal funding streams — government programs designed to award money to the states for a variety of infrastructure-related uses. They are:

...

1. Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) - HUD program established in 1974 that awards localities funds to spend on local projects that promote urban vitality, and primary benefit low to moderate income persons.
2. Energy - The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) is a Department of Energy program established in 2007 to provide grants to localities to adopt energy efficiency improvements.
3. Transit Equipment and Infrastructure - Department of Transportation programs to purchase buses, street cars, and maintain transit infrastructure.
4. City Streets/Metro Roads - The Surface Transportation Program, operated by DOT, provides bridge, bus, rail and road project funding
5. Airport Technology and Infrastructure - Airport Improvement Program, a DOT program that provides funds for specific airport repairs and improvements (runways, rescue equipment, noise abatement)
6. Amtrak - established by Congress in 1970 to operate passenger railways. Funding for railway upgrades, tunnels, bridges and stations.
7. Water and Wastewater Infrastructure - federal grants used to repair water and sewer infrastructure, and protect the water supply
8. Public Housing Modernization - HUD Public Housing Capital Fund for repairs to public housing
9. Public Safety - Funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grant, and Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, Justice Department programs that provide money to hire security personnel and equipment.
10. Schools - a new federal program is proposed to provide federal funds to modernize school buildings.

For whatever it is worth - at least we are getting funds back into our hands from the government...That would be a very good thing if the government wasn't just printing up tons of money to do this, which we all know could cause incredible inflation in our economy.

It's hard to decide if the shorter term gains of project works are really worth the overall damage to our economy that runaway deficit spending by the State and Federal government will ultimately produce.

It's kind of like you mortgaging all of your house equity and maxing out your credit cards to pay for stuff and then passing along all of those debts to your kids when you die (and leaving them no insurance, and of course the house is worth less than what you owe on it).

It doesn't really matter if the projects are good or bad - Someone has to pay for all of this.

Oh well, I guess we just pull up a chair and enjoy the pie now.
We'll have to take our chances on the possible resulting stomachache.


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