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Stimulus package hard at work
(by Dave Lange - July 22, 2009)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
Stimulus package hard at work
I haven't received one thin dime from the federal stimulus package, but I'm stimulated. It must be working -- the federal stimulus, that is. It's supposed to put Americans to work, reinvigorate production and get the economy back on track.
Writing is my work. I produce newspapers. I can't answer for the economy. But I'm stimulated to write about the stimulus.
The City of Chardon is awaiting word on a total of $534,000 in stimulus money to assist with its $1.07 million Wilson Mills Road sanitary sewer project. A decision is expected from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency at the end of August on whether Chardon deserves the money, which essentially amounts to two loans that would ease the cost of financing.
Obviously, this is a "shovel-ready" project, which we've been told is a key criterion for stimulating consideration. The shovels already have turned a lot of dirt. In fact, shovels were digging into the Wilson Mills Road sewer project last year, but the first contractor walked off the job due to unanticipated complications. The second contractor has completed one phase and is ready to move on to the next one.
That stimulates me to wonder, if this project already is under way and if it's going to be done with or without federal stimulation, how would that funding stimulate something that's already stimulated?
On the other hand, since the residents benefiting from sewers along Wilson Mills Road are going to have their property taxes assessed for some $850,000 of the cost, maybe this federal stimulus could be used to give them a tax cut. We keep hearing that tax cuts stimulate the economy, although that theory didn't pan out so well over the past eight years.
Speaking of sewers and stimulation, it appears that the City of Solon is falling off the federal stimulus-funding list for $4 million in upgrades to its municipal treatment plant. Speaking of theories, mine is that Solon officials have the stimulation decision makers confused by referring to their sewage treatment as water reclamation. Big stimulus bucks are ready and waiting to shovel you know what, but you don't reclaim water with shovels.
At any rate, this is another project that's going to move forward with or without federal stimulation, so there's no stimulus involved.
However, whenever the government sticks money into socialized sewage treatment or communistic water reclamation or left-wing whatever, you can count on the taxpayers getting stuck with the bill sooner and later. You can call it a sewer surcharge or rate increase, if you want, but, if it's paying for government programs, I call it a tax. I'm not sure if stimulating lower sewer rates in Solon qualifies as a tax cut. But based on the tax cuts of the past eight years, the median-income household in Solon got a bigger one than the median-income household in Chardon. Not that it did the economy much good.
Meanwhile, the Orange School District, where the median household income and expenditures for public education are among the highest in the state, has been awarded over $500,000 in federal stimulus funding.
The board of education won't be undertaking any sanitary sewer projects or water-reclamation upgrades with this stimulation, but the administration must have shovels ready. The money is being used to hire a psychologist to direct student support services at $104,500 a year and a pathologist to coordinate special education at $89,000 a year.
That ought to stimulate something.
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