This is economic stimulus?

[thelakelander]

Here is a pretty good editorial by the St. Pete Times.  I wonder if the TU has an official position with Jacksonville's list?

President-elect Obama's promised national stimulus plan has put a shine in the eyes of state and local government officials. As excited as children, they are making lists of all the things they will build if they can get a slice of those hundreds of billions of dollars. But Obama's twin goals of creating new jobs and kicking off green initiatives aren't supported by many of the items on the area lists. Officials have thrown in everything but the kitchen sink, apparently without regard to payback to the economy, and creativity and vision on a scale to match the president-elect's are depressingly absent.

Dog parks, basketball courts, swimming pools, walking trails, traffic video cameras, "textured" crosswalks, tennis centers, a duck pond and even a rehabilitation program for prostitutes are among the thousands of projects on lists created by cities and counties around the nation, without any indication of how they would create significant numbers of new jobs or reduce man's impact on the environment.

In the Tampa Bay region, the lists include new mast-arm poles for traffic lights in St. Petersburg, a new utility meter reading system in Pasco County, expanding the landfill in Hernando County, relocating airport surveillance radar at Tampa International Airport, renovating a community sports complex in Clearwater, and replacing traffic signals throughout Hillsborough County.

The Tampa Bay lists also include hundreds of millions of dollars in transportation projects, some of them desperately needed and legitimate stimulus ideas. But it is difficult to envision how some others â€" for example, paving dirt streets in Pasco County or improving a residential street in Clearwater â€" would spark economic recovery.

It appears that some local governments simply transferred their own, already approved capital improvement projects onto the stimulus list, as if the Obama plan were some sort of welfare-for-government program. Perhaps that is in part because the president-elect wants shovel-ready projects, but it makes no sense to use the stimulus dollars for projects that have potential local funding, especially if they don't meet the federal program's goals to create jobs, repair or replace vital infrastructure and reduce the carbon footprint.

Most disappointing on the wish lists is the scarcity of creative and visionary projects that could help position local communities to meet tomorrow's challenges. Relatively few projects would retrofit buildings to make them energy efficient, upgrade aging communications infrastructure, boost light rail and other innovative transportation projects, or fund retraining of workers to prepare them for success in the new global economy.

The Obama plan should not be regarded as a goody bag into which state and local governments dip to satisfy their desire for more ballparks or fancier traffic signals. Every project should be examined for its potential to create new jobs and contribute in fundamental ways to the economic recovery.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/editorials/article948640.ece

[BridgeTroll]

Great editorial!  I hope whoever is choosing what gets funding has line item veto powers...

[downtownparks]

More of the same, really. Why solve the problems like transportation and infrastructure, when you can keep repaving roads and doing empty feel-good projects.

[JeffreyS]

Obama should make his position clear if projects with funding already in place are on the table. Is it is about stimulating the economy by getting things done that were not going to happen or maybe fast tracking items that were set for farther off.

[downtownparks]

The problem is, there is no votes in replacing bridges or installing mass transit. At least, not in Jax.

So often they go over budget and in the end they never make money. Citizens, especially fiscally conservative citizens see them all as being yet another example of a government boondoggle.

Its a vicious catch 22.

[JeffreyS]

I want transit.  That said I wouldn't be so upset if the city were asking for the rare opportunity item that would indeed stimulate our local economy. The river being dredged to accommodate the Navy and our port without Jacksonville fronting the money would be a real boon.  A homeless services center as a place for the different services to gather and help with its own area away from downtown. A freight yard where Jacksonville could charge money and all rail lines could have access to maximize the benefit of our port expansion.  A hundred other things that don't just clear his budget not that I am against those.

[brainstormer]

Awesome editorial, and I completely agree.  I hope Obama has the guts to say no and send the mayors back to the drawing board.  The nation's list is lacking in creativity, new technology and environmentally friendly projects.  Very little thought went into these lists and most mayors around the country should be ashamed of themselves.  All the projects will provide jobs for 1-2 years and then in 2012 we will be in the exact same position we are in today.

[Charles Hunter]

Agreed, there is a serious lack of vision in the project lists.  As the excellent editorial said, part of the problem is the call for "shovel ready" projects.  The mundane is what is ready to go to construction.  Visionary projects are typically not "shovel ready" because, well, because they are visionary and don't have a funding source in sight.  If funding is not there for construction, a lot of folks would complain if designs were taken to the point of being "shovel ready", as it is often expensive to develop design plans.

Perhaps the stimulus money could be split between "shovel ready" projects, and longer-term projects that still need design (like Commuter Rail, here).

Oh, I also agree that dredging the ship channel in the St. Johns should be a very high priority.

[urbanlibertarian]

They should stick to repair and maintenance of existing infrastructure that has been postponed.  You know like the Minnesota bridge that collapsed.  Funds that would have gone to those repairs gets diverted to new projects so that politicians can cut a ribbon on tv.

[JeffreyS]

^I know maintenance should not slip but that is not economic stimulus.  This is a new project fund just as you shouldn't divert funds from maintenance you should use these funds where they are intended.

[BridgeTroll]

You know like the Minnesota bridge that collapsed.

Turns out the collapse was caused by faulty design... not maintenance.

The NTSB has cited a design flaw as the likely cause of the collapse, and asserted that additional weight on the bridge at the time of the collapse contributed to the failure.[11]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-35W_Mississippi_River_Bridge