I can't speak for other communities, but the Village of Bergen was able, according to village adminstrator, Stacey A. Brown, to save "several hundreds of thousands of dollars" on sewer plant upgrades through the 2009 Clean Water money included in the stimulus bill. Whether this funding created new jobs is unclear, but it certainly provided a financial opportunity for contractors doing the work. The money did not come in the form of a grant. The village was guaranteed substantially lower interest rates on loans required to accomplish the repairs. I would surmise that Bergen is not alone in taking advantage of the $4 billion dollar grab for Clean Water funding. Hopefully, the City of Batavia having voiced water system woes will do likewise.
Funding public works projects like this one are win-win opportunities. The village saved on an expensive but necessary repair bill, and the contractors are provided a paycheck.
Most are aware that Clean Water money dried up after the major opportunities in the 60s and 70s. In the last decade. the Bush Administration annually cut money from Clean Water programs. The 2010 bill amounts to a 15% increase in funding over the previous fiscal year for the Department of Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service and other related agencies. The bill provides $10.3 billion in funding for the EPA alone, $2.7 billion more than in 2009.
$3.6 billion is dedicated to improving community drinking water and wastewater systems, $2.1 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, $1.38 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and $157 million for direct grants to communities for water infrastructure. Terms of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act require 20% of all projects funded to incorporate green infrastructure or water efficiency techniques.
Also in the budget: $475 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and $1.5 billion for hazardous waste/toxic site clean-up and $385 million for programs that address climate change.
The question is not whether it created jobs. It obviously did, although estimates vary from several thousand to a couple of million. The real question is, is this the best use of the public treasury and will it ultimately stimulate the economy enough to get us back to full employment. Some economists say Obama wasn't aggressive enough and that had the stimulus package been a lot bigger, we could have knocked a couple of points off the unemployment rate by now.
The government doesn't stimulate the economy or create jobs by printing money. Capitalism - does that-Private industry does that, and Corporate America does that by creating new business through innovation, ingenuity and productivity.
America the manufacturer has become America the gambler/speculator. Corporations are committed to their stock and stockholders- not the 19th Century sampler-screed work-ethic adulating an honest days work. I exclude the small business world in my overview; the small business world, I trust, has a more traditional hold on the value of customer, design, quality and human labor. I have no such trust in the major corporations who have shipped jobs overseas, laid-off millions and left the legacy of our parents and grandparents at a foreign pawn shop. The big bucks are all tied to mega-billion-dollar swindles that are the stuff of Wall Street- the modern Temple Money Changers who do not "work" for a living, but profit off handling other people's money. The fate of the middle class is tethered to the ability of that middle class to remain consumers- not producers.
I can't speak for other
I can't speak for other communities, but the Village of Bergen was able, according to village adminstrator, Stacey A. Brown, to save "several hundreds of thousands of dollars" on sewer plant upgrades through the 2009 Clean Water money included in the stimulus bill. Whether this funding created new jobs is unclear, but it certainly provided a financial opportunity for contractors doing the work. The money did not come in the form of a grant. The village was guaranteed substantially lower interest rates on loans required to accomplish the repairs. I would surmise that Bergen is not alone in taking advantage of the $4 billion dollar grab for Clean Water funding. Hopefully, the City of Batavia having voiced water system woes will do likewise.
Funding public works projects like this one are win-win opportunities. The village saved on an expensive but necessary repair bill, and the contractors are provided a paycheck.
Most are aware that Clean Water money dried up after the major opportunities in the 60s and 70s. In the last decade. the Bush Administration annually cut money from Clean Water programs. The 2010 bill amounts to a 15% increase in funding over the previous fiscal year for the Department of Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Forest Service and other related agencies. The bill provides $10.3 billion in funding for the EPA alone, $2.7 billion more than in 2009.
$3.6 billion is dedicated to improving community drinking water and wastewater systems, $2.1 billion for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, $1.38 billion for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and $157 million for direct grants to communities for water infrastructure. Terms of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act require 20% of all projects funded to incorporate green infrastructure or water efficiency techniques.
Also in the budget: $475 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and $1.5 billion for hazardous waste/toxic site clean-up and $385 million for programs that address climate change.
The question is not whether
The question is not whether it created jobs. It obviously did, although estimates vary from several thousand to a couple of million. The real question is, is this the best use of the public treasury and will it ultimately stimulate the economy enough to get us back to full employment. Some economists say Obama wasn't aggressive enough and that had the stimulus package been a lot bigger, we could have knocked a couple of points off the unemployment rate by now.
The government doesn't
The government doesn't stimulate the economy or create jobs by printing money. Capitalism - does that-Private industry does that, and Corporate America does that by creating new business through innovation, ingenuity and productivity.
America the manufacturer has
America the manufacturer has become America the gambler/speculator. Corporations are committed to their stock and stockholders- not the 19th Century sampler-screed work-ethic adulating an honest days work. I exclude the small business world in my overview; the small business world, I trust, has a more traditional hold on the value of customer, design, quality and human labor. I have no such trust in the major corporations who have shipped jobs overseas, laid-off millions and left the legacy of our parents and grandparents at a foreign pawn shop. The big bucks are all tied to mega-billion-dollar swindles that are the stuff of Wall Street- the modern Temple Money Changers who do not "work" for a living, but profit off handling other people's money. The fate of the middle class is tethered to the ability of that middle class to remain consumers- not producers.