Stimulus benefits big - and small
By Gregory Korte • gkorte@enquirer.com • June 6, 2009
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President Obama may have been thinking big with his $787 billion stimulus package, but his counterparts in local government are thinking decidedly small.
As local cities and counties put together their applications for some of their first tastes of stimulus money, they've come up with block grant applications where the typical project costs less than $250,000.
The city of Covington, for example, has broken down its line items as small as $1,650 each - to replace 117 curb ramps in the neighborhood around Decoursey and Winston avenues, to make them handicapped-accessible. Cincinnati is giving out grants as small as $8,556 for a program to prevent teen pregnancy and violence.
The list of local applications for the Community Development Block Grants also includes $61,200 for sidewalks in Forest Park, $93,000 for air conditioners in Sharonville and $56,008 for playground renovations in Hamilton.
In Woodlawn and Lincoln Heights, taxpayers will spend $100,000 to resurface one-seventh of a mile of Prairie Avenue, and install curbs for 20 houses along the way - a project that Rev. Jesse O'Conner hopes will stop the flooding in his basement.
Without curbs or gutters, rainwater comes down the street and settles on his property. He's even had precast concrete parking blocks installed in place of curbs in an effort to prevent floods like the one that put eight inches of water in his basement last week.
"We need to get people working again, spending money," said O'Conner, a General Electric retiree who's lived on the street since 1954. "It needs to be spent, not put in the bank somewhere."
Those projects may sound like small potatoes in the context of a spending plan usually measured in the millions, billions and even trillions. But local officials say it's important that smaller communities aren't forgotten in the effort to pump federal taxpayer money into the economy.
"So far, everything coming out of the stimulus has been mega-projects that only big communities get," said Hamilton County Commissioner David Pepper. "We heard a lot of discussion from smaller communities who said, 'What about us?'"
Local governments in the region have been allocated more than $5.3 million in additional community development block grants, Applications for specific projects were due Friday, and governments are guaranteed to receive the funds as long as they meet federal criteria.
They hope to get some of that money in time for summer construction, though it may come as late as Sept. 30.
Lists of projects 'ready to go'
That tight timeline - and the federal requirement that projects be "shovel-ready" - made it necessary to break off the grants into small, manageable projects, local officials said.
Take Forest Park. With some of its housing now more than 50 years old, the northern Cincinnati suburb has seen its growth begin to slow. But it's generally middle-class, with few neighborhoods eligible for funding under federal community development guidelines. By law, the funds must go to benefit low- and moderate-income communities, or to eliminate slums and blighting conditions.
"It's always been a bit of an uphill struggle on our part," said Chris Anderson, the city's community development director. "The way CDBG has been thought about up to now it just didn't take communities like us into account as much."
So when county officials encouraged them to put together a proposal for federal funding - and gave them just a couple of weeks to do it - the city needed to come up with an infrastructure project quickly. It needed to be easy to get started, easy to design and easy to finish - without cost overruns.
Hence, sidewalks.
"We had lists and windshield surveys all ready to go - and a bit of a backlog," Anderson said.
The program will benefit low- to moderate-income households by paying the homeowner's share of the sidewalk replacement - usually half the cost.
One downside of smaller projects: They're more expensive to administer. Local governments are expected to watch over each project to make sure the money is properly spent - and are allowed to take 10 percent of the funding for those costs.
Cincinnati is taking the full 10 percent, and Hamilton County expects to spend just a decimal short of that.
The cities of Covington and Hamilton are putting all their money toward projects, and none to administration.
Butler County decided to "keep things simple" by putting all its money into a new water line in New Miami and St. Clair Township. Of $311,163 allocated, about 8 percent will go to administration, said Butler County Community Development Director Donna Everson.
Jobs 'totally a guess'
What she has more difficulty counting is the number of jobs the project will create.
It's a common complaint from local community development officials: the Obama Administration wants to see evidence that the stimulus is putting people to work, but hasn't given any guidance on how to count those jobs.
"It's totally a guess how many people it's going to take to do this," said Everson. "That's our concern with all these project estimates coming down. The regulations and rules keep changing on us."
Hamilton County gets $911,939 - 27 percent of its annual allotment for community development block grants. Commissioners decided to make it a competitive process, soliciting proposals from eligible communities. From $4 million in proposals, they selected ten. All, except for $136,739 to the Salvation Army to run the Mount Airy Homeless Shelter, go to housing rehabilitation, demolition or construction projects.
The city of Cincinnati also has some brick-and-mortar projects, but has diverted much of its allocation to make up for shortcomings in social services, code enforcement and policing.
But even there, city officials made efforts to spread the benefit into as many neighborhoods as possible. A new Private Lot Abatement program will spend $214,466 to cut weeds and clean litter - at an average cost of $128 per lot - in poor neighborhoods. That's about 1,673 lots cleaned. (Jobs retained: five.)
Another new city program would help poor homeowners pay for repairs when the city cites them for code violations. The $218,021 could pay to fix 15 homes. (Jobs created: two.)
Not 'frivolous spending'
As with similar programs funded with this new stimulus money, the city hasn't yet decided which homeowners will be eligible for that money.
But one person who will likely benefit from the stimulus is Aileen Koelker, a 73-year old Ford retiree who lives in Golden View Acres, a retirement community for seniors built by the city of Sharonville in 1981.
Sharonville expects to get $93,000 to replace up to 33 heating and air conditioning units - many of which are now 28 years old - to more energy efficient models.
"It would be nice to have new air conditioning and a new furnace. I guess it will put some people to work," said Koelker, who spent nine years on a waiting list for the two-bedroom, rent controlled apartment.
"I don't think it's frivolous spending," she said. "On the other hand, I get tired of people thinking that the government needs to pay for everything. I just wonder how far into debt we can afford to go with this."
Local governments in the region have been allocated more than $5.3 million in additional community development block grants, Applications for specific projects were due Friday, and governments are guaranteed to receive the funds as long as they meet federal criteria.
They hope to get some of that money in time for summer construction, though it may come as late as Sept. 30.
Lists of projects 'ready to go'
That tight timeline - and the federal requirement that projects be "shovel-ready" - made it necessary to break off the grants into small, manageable projects, local officials said.
Take Forest Park. With some of its housing now more than 50 years old, the northern Cincinnati suburb has seen its growth begin to slow. But it's generally middle-class, with few neighborhoods eligible for funding under federal community development guidelines. By law, the funds must go to benefit low- and moderate-income communities, or to eliminate slums and blighting conditions.
"It's always been a bit of an uphill struggle on our part," said Chris Anderson, the city's community development director. "The way CDBG has been thought about up to now it just didn't take communities like us into account as much."
So when county officials encouraged them to put together a proposal for federal funding - and gave them just a couple of weeks to do it - the city needed to come up with an infrastructure project quickly. It needed to be easy to get started, easy to design and easy to finish - without cost overruns.
Hence, sidewalks.
"We had lists and windshield surveys all ready to go - and a bit of a backlog," Anderson said.
The program will benefit low- to moderate-income households by paying the homeowner's share of the sidewalk replacement - usually half the cost.
One downside of smaller projects: They're more expensive to administer. Local governments are expected to watch over each project to make sure the money is properly spent - and are allowed to take 10 percent of the funding for those costs.
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Hysterical. What a waste of money this nonsense is.
I wish this were not so funny as it is pathetic.
