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AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais
Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington to discuss the stimulus package.
Thursday, Jan. 29, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Washington’s promise of a massive stimulus package to help turn around the nation’s economy is paying dividends in Nevada. For the first time in a long time, Nevadans are expecting good economic news.
Sun Blogs
The $819 billion legislation approved by the Democratic majority in the House and pending in the Senate promises money for schools and roads and food stamps and unemployment benefits and college tuition and a long list of other items no one in Nevada or Washington seems yet able to grasp.
But the promise that aid — about $4.3 billion by some estimates — would be coming this way had Nevada in a state of eager anticipation Wednesday. Everyone, it seems, had the same questions: Exactly how much money, and when and where would it go?
U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., released figures showing that the money would create more than 62,000 jobs in Nevada — a staggering number in a state with an unemployment rate of more than 9 percent. U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley highlighted the bill’s “Making Work Pay” tax cuts for 950,000 Nevadans, up to $1,000 for each married couple and up to $500 per individual.
The bill also includes money that should ensure that widening and improvement plans for the valley’s three main roadways — Interstate 15, U.S. 95 and the beltway — can be carried out, Berkley noted.
This month, local jurisdictions and regional agencies — with the exception of the Clark County School District — compiled a list of “shovel-ready” projects that could move forward within 180 days if stimulus funding were provided.
But that list will have to be amended, as the jurisdictions and the state begin to prioritize which projects will benefit from stimulus dollars. The House bill included at least one “use it or lose it” provision — a requirement that 50 percent of the money for highway, aviation, transit and rail projects be obligated within 90 days.
Jacob Snow, general manager of Southern Nevada’s Regional Transportation Commission, noted that usually the federal government pays for 80 percent of a highway project and local jurisdictions have to cover the remainder, but the stimulus bill’s $218 million for Nevada highway and bridge projects doesn’t include that requirement.
Some of the transportation dollars would probably be used to help widen Interstate 15 between Blue Diamond Road and Tropicana Avenue and U.S. 95 between Rainbow Boulevard and Ann Road, said Susan Martinovich, director of the state Transportation Department. Those projects have a combined price tag of $425 million, so stimulus dollars wouldn’t cover all of the cost.
Stimulus dollars also would be applied to transportation projects that would coordinate traffic lights and add freeway signage, and worn thoroughfares that need repaving are certain to benefit from the stimulus money, Snow said.
Some of the bigger projects sought regionally, including an overhauled airport connector, may not make the cut because there would not be enough dollars to go around.
Nevada also would get at least $45 million for mass transit projects such as a new transit hub for buses and bicycles at Bonneville Avenue and Casino Center Boulevard in downtown Las Vegas; a bus line from downtown Las Vegas to downtown Henderson, called the ACE Boulder Highway Project, that will have its own lane; and park-and-ride lots with bus stops.
The RTC is to meet today to discuss prioritizing other projects. It’s one of many such meetings that are to take place in the coming weeks.
Most Nevada officials contacted by the Sun on Wednesday said it was too soon to say exactly how the stimulus money would be spent.
Dan Burns, Gov. Jim Gibbons’ spokesman, said Gibbons and high-ranking staff will meet next week to come up with a formal set of priorities for the “state fiscal stabilization fund” money that may come to Nevada, estimated at $512.8 million, along with tens of millions of dollars that would be routed through state government.
The Gibbons administration is looking at using some of the money to bolster Nevada Check Up, the health insurance program for children of the working poor; lessening the proposed 6 percent pay reduction for teachers and state workers; and reducing cuts in higher education and the K-12 system, Burns said.
Legislative leaders have yet to hammer out exactly how they’d want the money to be spent.
In many cases, existing “priority” lists add up to far more money than might be coming — and the lists haven’t really been prioritized. They have to be whittled down. Only now will leaders try to figure out which of the many needs are the most pressing and how much stimulus money could be spent on each.
The Clark County School District, for example, would get an estimated $64 million for construction and renovation, but the district has a list of about $200 million in renovations and remodeling work that’s been approved and needs funding.
The list includes $6.2 million for Charlotte Hill Elementary School, in the district’s southeast region. The school needs a new roof, said Principal Jacqueline Brown, who is in her 11th year at the East Eldorado Lane campus. And the aged heating and air-conditioning system has needed replacing for five years.
For some state agencies, it’s time to start making what Mike Willden, executive director of the Health and Human Services Department, called “add back” lists, trying to regain ground lost to proposed budget cuts.
As an example, he noted that his agency sought funding in the governor’s budget to hire nearly 500 staff members over the next two years for Medicaid, food stamp and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs, to deal with caseloads that have grown 25 percent in the past year.
As administrator of Medicaid and Nevada Check Up, health insurance programs for the growing ranks of the poor, Chuck Duarte may wind up overseeing one of the largest boosts from the stimulus package. Duarte said he had seen six estimates of how large that amount would be, ranging from $300 million to $440 million.
Hopes are to avoid the governor’s proposal to cap Nevada Check Up at 25,000 children and to raise the rates paid to doctors who care for the children, stemming the tide of doctors who decline to offer the service.
Similarly, Laura Harrison, director of Acelero Learning Clark County Head Start, said the estimated $2.8 million that may come to her program would allow her to offer the first cost-of-living increase to her staff of 255 since the Clinton administration. The local program has 13 centers with 1,700 children and a budget of $11.2 million. Harrison said the funds might also allow her to hire more staff and increase enrollment, which would allow more parents to seek work.
The stimulus package would also fund infrastructure projects, providing a benefit to all Nevadans while also creating much-needed jobs.
That includes an estimated $30 million for Nevada’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a loan program that pays for construction and modernization of sewer systems and waste water treatment plants. The program typically funds projects that alleviate a public health risk.
This year’s regular budget for the revolving fund is about $3 million. Last year’s was about $5 million. There are typically about 25 projects that would cost about $250 million waiting for loans from the fund.
Cindy Jones, deputy director of the Employment, Training and Rehabilitation Department, said her agency would use some of the money to ensure a trained workforce is in place to put shovels in the dirt on those and other projects to be spurred by the stimulus. That would include several million for the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board.
The bill also would increase unemployment benefits by $25 a week. There are currently 78,000 Nevadans receiving those benefits, about 70 percent of whom live in Clark County.
As for helping the poorest students in struggling Clark County schools, that’s the aim of Title 1 federal dollars. For the 2008-09 academic year, the district received about $60 million, enough to serve 76 campuses. The estimate is that the stimulus package would provide at least $29 million more Title 1 money for Clark County, which would mean about 15 more schools would get that money, said Susan Wright, director of Title I programs for the district.
Estimates are that the School District would get nearly $180 million in stimulus funding over a two-year period. Charlene Green, deputy superintendent of student support services, said she will be pushing to spend some of that on more job training opportunities for older special ed students, and increasing efforts to replace substitutes with certified special ed teachers. Expanding programs for autistic students would also be a priority, Green said.
Sun reporters David McGrath Schwartz, Phoebe Sweet and Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
"U.S. Rep. Dina Titus, D-Nev., released figures showing that the money would create more than 62,000 jobs in Nevada -- a staggering number in a state with an unemployment rate of more than 9 percent."
It's been more than four hours since I read this. Should I call my doctor?
My credit card rate has been hiked to 27.99%, and I pay 99% of the time on time and always at least the minimum due. Why can't congress help people like me out by capping credit card rates at 9.99%??? I would owe less and have more money to "buy things" and stimulate the economy. All these other things the Ensigns, GOP, and Reaganomics want got us in this mess, help bail "us" out!!!
LasVegas2009, how much is your home worth now? Was it your fault? Did you buy anything advertised in the last ten years? Did you vote for Bush?
Republican policies put us here. We have invested everything in business and let everything in the public sector go. This is the inevitable correction.
Nice of you to be so charitable. I hope you don't lose your job as so many of us have, which was not our fault. Then we would see how you pay your way.
Dear Senator Ensign---Come on Senate--clean up the "pork' in this rescue package, and add some more tax cuts. ACORN-like stooges do not deserve $4 billion dollars in goodies in this legislation. Hopefully by the time this legislation passes the Senate(sooner the better) it will be a more decent piece of legislation that most all of us can support. A perfect piece of legislation( one with 100% stimulus drivers) will never emerge, but you guys and gals in the Senate can make this an even better bill. So please get on with it, and get it out on the street.
It already has tax cuts. Also, a reminder: we tried tax cuts before. They didn't work.
This page details some of the propsed tax cuts:
http://money.cnn.com/2009/01/28/news/eco...
Thank you, Dina, for helping us and stepping up after Jim Gibbons has let us down.
Liars...simple as that...they are liars...they know it, we know it, the press knows it, my cat knows it, the universe knows it...we accept it...we are stupid & lazy...time for a drink...orange juice, of course...Liars...
"It already has tax cuts. Also, a reminder: we tried tax cuts before. They didn't work."
Giving billions in welfare cash last year worked very well......yeah it had a big impact......Oh man...are we in big do-do.
This dumb plan is doomed to failed.
What with those dems clowns do when this bill moves the economy very little?
Obama trillion dollar deficits, even perhaps $2 trillion deficit one day, will create a bigger mess one day.
What is the brilliant jfnance32 plan?
Yesterday, you said that anyone who criticized Jim Gibbons plan should make their own.
I would love to hear jfnance32's plan for saving the economy.
Never enough tax cuts. Taxes are negative cash burdens to consumers and businesses.The more tax cuts the better. A combination of new infrastructure, cash infusions to the financial system( set up a "bad" bank), assistance to troubled home owner/consumer debtors, aid to states, and MORE TAX CUTS!! Later on, when a recovery begins, tax revenues will increase with higher incomes--keep the rates low.
And again I say, as long as we continue to buy foreign made products and export our jobs overseas we will never see our economy recover. What is so hard to understand about that?
Wow...ksand99 thinks Gibbons is charge of the national economy.
I know that ksand99 thinks Gibbons is a great man but that is going over the top.
Ksand99 can not even say that Nevada should raise a billion in new taxes in this harsh economy or admit that there will be hundreds of millions in cuts in the budget.
What has the cat got your tongue? Are you hiding under the rocks with Buckley?
So you don't have a plan for saving the economy?
You are just going to criticize the Democrats plan?
You have a huge double standard. That is very hypocritical of you to hold other people to a standard you try to weasel out of.
What is your superduper plan to save the economy, jfNance32?
You are THE expert in having hypocritical standards.
You demand, demand and demand....but punt, punt, punt like your buddy Buckley.
You can not even answer a simple question.
Do you want to raise a billion in new state taxes in this very harsh economy?
Or
Will you admit that we need hundreds in millions in the budget cuts for Nevada?
Where do you learn to punt? From Buckley?
Wait, A simple question?
That's one question. You gave me four. Which are you petulantly demanding an answer for? Which one are you kicking and screaming over? Are you aware of the stimulus money that could make its way to the state? If we get what is currently on the table, no, I don't think cuts will be necessary.
You don't see the hypocrisy in your own words? You were so angry yesterday when people dared to criticize Jim Gibbons' massively unpopular budget. You said that if you criticize, you have to offer an alternative.
Now, you criticize the Democrats stimulus package, but won't offer an alternative.
That's a huge double standard.
So if you won't adhere to your own rules, that makes your actions hypocritical. I have not been hypocritical, I'm trying to hold you to your own standard. If you think I should, you should as well.
So again, I'll ask: what is your superduper plan to save the U.S. economy?
"Now, you criticize the Democrats stimulus package, but won't offer an alternative.
That's a huge double standard."
Look into the mirror.....
You critize Gibbons plan and will not answer two simple questions.
Do you want to raise a billion in new state taxes in this very harsh economy?
Or
Will you admit that we need hundreds in millions in the budget cuts for Nevada?
That question was asked and answered in the second paragraph of my reply. Debate with you would be alot more fun if you could read.
No, I don't have a double standard. I think anyone should be free to criticize any budget proposal. YOU demanded a budget in exchange for criticism.
Now that the tables are turned, all you have is excuses. I guess only Democrats have to propose solutions. According to jfnance32's double standard, he doesn't have to follow his own demands.
boftx
you have it right. we have to stop exporting jobs. It's not just to Canada. the Big 3 auto makers all have plants in Canada and Mexico too. The jobs have to come back to the US. The jobs exist. They just need to come home.
We may have to pay more for goods and not everyone will have a new car, big TV and a cell phone, but at least there will be jobs.
Building/fixing roads and renovating schools will not work. Those jobs are short term. If you fix a road what long term jobs are created? If you renovate an existing school how are more jobs created? None.
This plan will never work. What happened to "tax companies that ship our jobs oversees". Of the 100,000 jobs lost this week, how many went to china? Where is that report?
How about "tax breaks for those earning less than 250K per year"? How did closing the cuba prision superceed this?
Or this one "I will fix healthcare costs". My contribution to healthcare is over $900 per month! Fix healthcare costs and folks will have more to spend.
Wait "Stopping Forclosure". Enough said.
And how does giving CCSD more Title 1 money fix anything at all. I'm all for poor kids having oppertunities, but giving money to kids to educate them better when there are no jobs on the horizion. That's throwing good money at bad. You have to have quality jobs to create a need for quality employees.
The fix for those that requested it above is simple:
Stop Foreclosure
Bring Jobs Home to the US
Cut taxes for the middle class so they will spend.
Cut taxes for business so they will grow and create/bring home jobs.
Fund projects that build now and employ folks long term down the road.
Reduce healthcare costs = more disposible income
Reduce Gov't Waste = offsets the tax breaks.
It is real simple to me.
kevjandon;
"I'm all for poor kids having opportunities, but giving money to kids to educate them better when there are no jobs on the horizon. That's throwing good money at bad."
Man, it hurt my head just to type that in!
You lose all credibility with a statement like this. Sorry.
I didn't see anything in the plan that will help me - I don't have kids to claim anymore - no help there - not elible for earned income credit - not using welfare or food stamps - not a first time home buyer - what help is there for the ordinary empty nested middle class person? Maybe I missed something - if so will someone please enlighten me because from what I've read of the proposed stimulus package I didn't see one area at all that would serve to help me out. I guess I really never expected it to anyway -I've always paid my own way - never put a hand out for any kind of government assistance so no need to start now.
gmag39
Yes it does hurt to type that, but the truth hurts doesn't it. A country can not be run with emotions on your sleeve. It has to be run like a business to be successful.
What are kids graduating college or high school supposed to do about jobs?
If I was in college right now I would seriously be looking at the cost benifit of finishing. Caterpiller laid of 20,000 workers on Monday. Then yesterday said, ooops we need to lay of 2,100 more. The company I work for had 17 employees in our Vegas office just 1 year ago. Now we are down to 6. Of the 11 positions terminated only 1 paid under 60K per year. That puts 11 highly educated, qualified workers back in the pool.
We already have an educated workforce in the unemployement line and the reality is there are no jobs. We need to bring jobs back from places like India and China. Only then can we contiue to create a more educated work force.
Did you know that in addition to the telemarker positions that have been out sourced to India by companies like Dell Computers, Auto Cadd detailing is out sourced to Asian Countries as well. The same is true with special effects animation. Pixar, Dreamworks and Sony are starting to find they can ship the animation jobs overseas for 1/2 the price now that technology allows them to easily transfer the large amounts of data. It's not just the low paying jobs going over there. AutoCadd detailers make 60K +/- and anamators for movies make 125K+.
To make matters worse is that colleges and universities in the US educate these folks and they go back to their homeland and steal our jobs.
If we don't stop the exportation of jobs we as country will be in the same boat as the Big 3 Auto makers. Lots of inventory with no where to put it.
The simple truth is that stimulus comes from expenditure. If the stimulus is from tax reduction, only about 35% of the 2008 rebates were spent, most went to debt reduction or savings. With subsidies for public works, state budgets and the like, 100% of those dollars are spent. If the goal of stimulus is to help the eonommy and put ppl back to work, there should be less emphasis on tax reduction. If the emphasis is to help indiivdual taxpayers, i.e. ppl that are already working, then tax reduction would be better but it wouldn't be stimulus.
All that being said, there are some targeted tax reductions that can act as incentives to employment, such as credits for new employees, capital investment and the like. The House version of the Bill has some of these incentives and they are a proper component.
I commend Obama for trying to fix the Bush mess. But as I look at the proposal where are the dollars for small business? The Bush administration gutted the SBA. With the banks taking the initial money and not loaning, we have not place to get working capital to survive and grow. Since small businesses drive employement we need to focus on our survival. So I propose that some of the money go to the SBA with the intent to immediated loan money. If small businesses obtained needed capital and tax credits for expanding thier employment, we can fix the problem. But if we continue to do the same old fixes, it will only get worse!