As the United States inches closer and closer to inauguration day, President-elect Barack Obama is making one thing clear: This country is project ready.
His proposed economic stimulus plan (said to total $775 billion), if it passes through U.S. Congress, would reinvigorate "shovel-ready" projects around the country that were stalled due to lack of funding.
And that has politicians around the country making out their wish lists.
Last December, the U.S. Conference of Mayors released Ready to Go, a 1,559-page report outlining 15,221 local infrastructure projects in 641 cities can launch as soon as federal funding becomes available. The report claims the projects will produce more than 1.2 million jobs in 2009 and 2010.
Projects in the report include:
• An expansion of the Port of Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska
• The construction of an animal-control facility in Bessemer, Alabama
• A carbon-footprint reduction project in Citrus Heights, California,
• Solar power grid installations in Cocoa Beach, Florida
• Low-income housing construction in Jackson, Mississippi
• Roadway improvements in low-income neighborhoods of Cincinnati, Ohio
• Structural improvements to library branches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Construction of a water treatment plant in La Barge, Wyoming
Although many see infrastructure as a necessity for getting out of the country's current recession, government watchdog groups like Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) are crying foul.
In response to the mayor's report, CAGW president Tom Schatz said: "It is outrageous that the mayors would use this economic crisis as an opportunity to obtain federal funding for these wasteful, low-priority projects, which apparently offer excellent photo opportunities for them, but will do nothing to stimulate the economy in the long term."
While there's nothing wrong with a little healthy skepticism about wasteful spending, the economy clearly needs some help these days--and this just might do the trick.
His proposed economic stimulus plan (said to total $775 billion), if it passes through U.S. Congress, would reinvigorate "shovel-ready" projects around the country that were stalled due to lack of funding.
And that has politicians around the country making out their wish lists.
Last December, the U.S. Conference of Mayors released Ready to Go, a 1,559-page report outlining 15,221 local infrastructure projects in 641 cities can launch as soon as federal funding becomes available. The report claims the projects will produce more than 1.2 million jobs in 2009 and 2010.
Projects in the report include:
• An expansion of the Port of Anchorage, Anchorage, Alaska
• The construction of an animal-control facility in Bessemer, Alabama
• A carbon-footprint reduction project in Citrus Heights, California,
• Solar power grid installations in Cocoa Beach, Florida
• Low-income housing construction in Jackson, Mississippi
• Roadway improvements in low-income neighborhoods of Cincinnati, Ohio
• Structural improvements to library branches in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
• Construction of a water treatment plant in La Barge, Wyoming
Although many see infrastructure as a necessity for getting out of the country's current recession, government watchdog groups like Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) are crying foul.
In response to the mayor's report, CAGW president Tom Schatz said: "It is outrageous that the mayors would use this economic crisis as an opportunity to obtain federal funding for these wasteful, low-priority projects, which apparently offer excellent photo opportunities for them, but will do nothing to stimulate the economy in the long term."
While there's nothing wrong with a little healthy skepticism about wasteful spending, the economy clearly needs some help these days--and this just might do the trick.
While I fully support the stimulus plan, at least what I have heard of it to date, I disagree with what I hope is a media focus on "shovel ready" projects. What does that term mean?
I work with city, county and State government managers whose focus is on Public Safety. Many of these professionals are part of the IS/IT staff in the jurisdiction. Most if not all of my clients are facing budget cuts so severe that the safety of their citizens could be compromised. Yet, stimilus funding for Homeland Security related projects has not been mentioned in the media.
Public Safety radio and information communication projects may not be 'photo op' opportunities for politicians but they are critically important to the security of the United States. "Shovel Ready" is a term from the past and those projects should not be the single largest piece of the stimulus pie.
Completing needed repairs to the nation's infrastructure is a great idea, putting people back to work while unemployment is on the rise is compassionate. Spending money we don't have is grossly irresponsible, it should be obvious that the trillions of dollars recently dumped into the economy are going to come back to us in the form of hyper inflation,(yes I understand that there a negative inflation rate....at the moment).
What the nation actually needs is a fundamental change in the way it views monetary policies. Postponing a recession or rather trying to minimize it's effects is only going to exacerbate the negative effects to the nations economy, the needed corrections to the markets must happen, or rather it is more correct to say, are going to happen regardless and dumping more trillions of dollars in spending is like adding gas to an inferno.
Ethical standards for Project Managers must include some notions of fiscal responsibility, while I am sure that most would rather see the opportunities for employment by the Federal Government spending on projects, the simple fact is that our children will be the ones who pay the consequences for our lack of sound monetary principals. The die is already cast however, we are witnessing a train wreck in slow motion. Can anybody say "Wiemar Germany".