Are you all feeling the love today?
Did ya remember to leave a few chocolates on the pillow for your babe? You know what they say: happy wife, happy life.
Okay, enough of that. Are you happy about Barack’s stimulus bill passing? Big win for a president just four weeks in office. Hopefully, it will work. Hard to say what it will mean for Bridgeport directly. Connecticut stands to receive about $3 billion with about one third of that going to its Medicaid fund. There’s $300 million for highway and bridge construction (paging Congress Street Bridge, paging Pleasure Beach Bridge), another $175 million for transit projects, $136 million for special education, $545 million for something called “fiscal stabilization” to protect jobs of teachers and uniformed services and $48 million for clean water.
Mayor Bill Finch is doing the smart thing playing nice with Mother Rell. I’d be sucking up to anyone influencing how the moolah will be spent.
The mayor lives across the street from Beardsley Park. Let’s invite the governor, her commissioners and the entire legislature for a glorious Bridgeport Day picnic. Anyone that doesn’t give us what we want will be lunch meat for the tigers. Okay, boys, legisl-ate this! That’s the Bridgeport way, isn’t it?
This could be the break the mayor (and other municipal leaders) needs to save his budget. I would imagine city Budget Director Tom Sherwood, Chief Administrator Officer Andy Nunn, and Chief Financial Officer Mike Feeney would be rubbing their hands together to figure out how any of this spending can help the budget year that starts July 1, and for that matter the rest of this budget year.
Some of it may be a leap of faith plugging in numbers before the budget is submitted to the City Council for action in April.
Roll Call
I must confess that at first glance I thought an electronic version of High Times was sent to me. Nope, it was the new webzine of Congressman Jim Himes–the Himes Times. Okay, let’s all hope the next year or so will be high times for Jim Himes. After all, they don’t call it a joint session of Congress for nothing.
Lets take a look at your numbers Lennie:
1. $One Billion to Medicaid Fund (No New Jobs)
2. $300 Million for Bridge & Highway Construction. Not really a lot of money when you consider the Congress St. Bridge will cost in excess of $40 million to replace or about 12% of the $300 Million.
3. $175 Million for transit projects whatever that means
4. $136 million for special education. JOBS?
5. $545 million for fiscal stabilization to protect a select group of employees. How many jobs does this save or add to the job rolls?
6. $48 Million for clean water. How many jobs does this add?
It seems to me that we did not get enough money to put the large number of Connecticut’s unemployed back to work.
If you are a cop, teacher or Fire Fighter you are probably thrilled. I know this will sounds harsh but $136 Million for special education should be in the regular apportionments from Washington. There will be jobs here but they will be specialized jobs.
I don’t think Connecticut made out in this spending package and I don’t see this as drastically changing our unemployment numbers. Time will tell.
Wondering’s explanation is noteworthy. Here’s my addition: if this bill makes others more successful, great! What this world forever needs is more productive people. I am disappointed to see my government backstopping cops, teachers and firefighters but saving jobs is a big part of this bill. I expect bills like this on the political horizon–this was the first volley. Bush borrowed to stimulate Iraq and nation-building continues over there based on already approved funds–and now Obama is doing the same here. If you listen carefully, you can almost hear the sound of 24-hour printing presses working in the distance …
But keep smiling fellow bloggers, there might be a new bridge in Bridgeport because of this–and that could happen where? (wink) Only in Bridgeport.
Lennie, you must have missed the memo on the phrase of the year: shovel-ready. No one knows if the Pleasure Beach Bridge should be for cars or people, much less has design, engineering and permits ready to go. And Congress Street? Not sure a decade of arguing has resulted in anything that would allow shovels in the ground in 120 days.
Once again, Bridgeport has probably missed the boat. The bloated, wasteful, boat that we’ll be paying for until our grandchildren are old men and women.
*** On the Pleasure Beach Bridge; if in fact the city of Bpt. along with the town of Stratford, is 90% pro in selling the waterfront prop. to the Feds, then why put up the % of the city’s stimulus budget money to fix a bridge that no one really knows what the Feds. will actually end up doing with the prop. in the future? Why not let them fix it as part of the deal, if in fact it’s going to be something that the public will benefit from? The money can be used for something else that can promote jobs in Bpt. ***
Instead of Sherwood, Nunn and Feeney trying to figure out how to spend the money, maybe the Mayor could get one or two guys who actually know what they are doing.