State says stimulus is slow coming
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Published: May 14, 2009
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MONTPELIER – Tom Evslin watches the federal stimulus money flow down to Vermont, but for the state's chief recovery officer, some of those funds are not flowing fast enough.
Vermont's share of the $787 billion economic stimulus package signed into law by President Barack Obama this year started arriving months ago. Money has gone to shore up state services, such as health care plans and unemployment payments, and also to fund road and bridge construction projects.
But a second slice of that economic pot is moving much slower than expected, Evslin said this week. That slice amounts to $7.2 billion in available federal funds for Internet broadband expansion and energy distribution projects.
"We're ready to go," Evslin said Wednesday. "But until they write the rules on how this money will be awarded, we can't go anywhere."
Much of the stimulus money is divided among the states according to existing federal formulas. But the rest of that pie is what government officials call "competitive funds" – meaning each state has the chance to grab onto that money by pitching the right combination of proposals and projects.
Evslin and officials from states across the country say the federal departments and agencies that will award these funds are moving too slowly to establish the rules and procedures for applying for the money – and will likely miss New England's typical construction season because of it.
Evslin said he planned on pushing projects in Vermont to establish better high-speed Internet service in underserved parts of the state and to establish a smart-grid electrical distribution system, two projects that federal officials often smile broadly upon.
But federal officials told him recently that the rules for those funds won't be written until later this summer and the money won't be released until September – the tail-end of our construction season. Evslin said the slow pace of the release of this funding can actually hurt the economy.
"I've spoken with people who were planning major projects this year, but put them on hold in case they got federal stimulus money to help out," Evslin said. "These are projects that probably would have gone forward if there was no stimulus plan."
The New York Times reported this week that less than 6 percent of the stimulus money has been handed out by the federal government. The Obama administration has set a goal of spending 70 percent of the stimulus money – more than $550 billion – in the next two years, putting the government 8 percent toward their goal, the newspaper reported.
The delay has gotten the attention of Vermont's congressional delegation. U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy and Bernard Sanders and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch sent a letter to officials in the Department of Commerce and Department of Agriculture urging them to proceed swifter in the distribution.
The two-page letter, sent in mid-April, notes that a federal program aimed at increasing rural Internet broadband has definitions that exclude all but two of Vermont's 251 municipalities from applying.
"In an attempt to serve the most needy populations, previous definitions and associated regulations have unintentionally shut out those in need of broadband access the most," the letter reads.
William Fraser, city manager of Montpelier, has seen a similar dynamic on the local level. Because Vermont is so small compared to other parts of the country, the state government took authority over spending the stimulus funds, Fraser said.
That means some municipalities are given tight deadlines to apply for available funds for special projects, such as paving a road or building a new bridge, he said, and asked to adhere to a strict set of rules and regulations that they've never been asked to consider before.
Fraser said this means municipalities such as Montpelier are expected to put together detailed plans to repave a road. But traditionally, those details don't run much deeper than the length of the road to be paved and the thickness of the new covering.
"There is an inherent tension between the need to see this money spent fast and the need to ensure that it is all accounted for," Fraser said. "I understand why they're doing this. They don't want, one year from now, all these horror stories about the money being spent on who knows what."
A call to the U.S. Department of Commerce was not returned Wednesday.
daniel.barlow@rutlandherald.com.
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