County system hurts Vt. stimulus
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By Louis Porter Vermont Press Bureau - Published: July 22, 2009
MONTPELIER — In among the various pots and caches of money that are part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — better known as the federal stimulus package — are some funds designated for counties across the country.
The problem, at least for Vermont and a few other states like it, is that without a strong county government system it has not been entirely clear where the money goes and how.
And on certain portions of that money "we simply seem to have missed out" said Tom Evslin, who is overseeing federal stimulus funding on behalf of Vermont's state government.
U.S. Sen. Bernard Sanders, a Vermont Independent, said Tuesday he and the other members of Vermont's delegation are trying to ensure there is a clear appeals process for the state's Regional Planning Commissions to try and get that money as the nearest Vermont equivalents to county governments.
And he wants to make sure the energy efficiency and conservation block grant program that he pushed for gets a steady source of money that includes funding for the regional planning agencies, Sanders said.
"We are working on that right now," he said.
The lack of county government does not mean the state did not receive any of the energy conservation block grants. In fact, Vermont received about $10.3 million that went to the state's 10 largest cities and to the state government, where some of it was dispersed to the planning groups.
However, it seems at this point that Vermont did not get some amount of funding — perhaps several million dollars — it would have received with an established county government system, Evslin said.
"We don't like it, and we keep hoping it will be reversed," he said.
There is another related wrinkle as well, he said. As part of the stimulus package the federal government effectively "bought down" or subsidized reduced interest rates to provide bonding ability for economic development.
Over three state fiscal years, roughly, Vermont will likely get about $1 billion from the ARRA package (not counting tax breaks and other incentives that go directly to residents and the state does not track). Only $100 million or so has already come to Vermont and been used, and most of that is in Medicaid help that is beneficial but does little to create new jobs, Evslin said.
"Most of that has not gone into job creation," he said. "Proportionately if you look across the country it is the same story everywhere else."
"We would like to be building more," he concluded.
However, Vermont is moving at the same speed or better than other states, Evslin said.
"We are spending the money at almost exactly the same rate as other states because it is the same process," he said, adding that Vermont is doing "at least as good as other states."
louis.porter@rutlandherald.com
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