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Additional Resources Simon gives federal stimulus fund update
The state will have limited flexibility in how it may use an estimated $8.7 billion allocated to Massachusetts between now and fiscal 2011, according to Jeffrey Simon, the state official overseeing the distribution of federal stimulus funds.
When the president and Congress began working on the stimulus package in December, “We thought there’d be big blocks of money coming into the states with lots and lots of flexibility,” Simon said at the March 25 meeting of the Massachusetts Mayors’ Association in Taunton. “That’s not the way it ended up.”
Federal officials, he said, concluded that the best way to put the money to work quickly was to channel it through existing programs.
Much of the discussion at the mayors’ meeting, also attended by Transportation Secretary James Aloisi, centered on infrastructure projects.
To be eligible for the federal money, local projects must be “shovel-ready,” meaning that they are ready to advertise. On March 13, the Patrick administration announced the first eight municipal projects, most of them involving road resurfacing, that qualified for funding.
The $30 million allocated to the eight projects represents a tiny fraction of roughly $2 billion available for infrastructure-related projects throughout the state. But, Simon said, the state would need $27 billion to fully fund all 8,300 projects that have been submitted by state agencies and municipalities.
“Any way you cut it, there’s going to be a lot of great projects that are not funded, simply because we don’t have the money to do it,” he said.
In response to concerns about the difficulty of getting projects to the shovel-ready stage, Simon said he would make sure that state regulations themselves are not preventing projects from being funded.
Overall, Massachusetts is in line to receive $809 million for transportation projects; nearly $2 billion for education; $3.6 billion for “safety-net” programs; $1.3 billion for technology and research; $482 million for clean energy programs; $430 million for housing; nearly $72 million for public safety; and $90 million for labor and workforce development.
Simon said more detailed federal guidelines are expected within 30 to 45 days indicating how money channeled through each of these categories can be deployed. He suggested that in some cases, current guidelines may appear incongruous. He noted, for example, that there are some funds available for fire stations, but none for police stations, schools or municipal administration buildings.
Simon emphasized that the federal government is requiring stimulus aid to be put to work in a matter of months. Road projects need to be out to bid within 120 days of when the stimulus bill was signed into law on Feb. 17; for transit projects, the period is 180 days.
“If [Massachusetts hasn’t] used all the money that is allotted to [it], the federal government intends to claw back that money, and redistribute it to states that are meeting those kind of timelines,” Simon said.
He reminded local officials that the federal funding stream will end a little more than two years from now, at the end of June 2011. If a project is not completed by the time the federal funding is cut off, the municipality may not be in position to complete it on its own.
Simon said the level of transparency in dispensing the money will be “unprecedented,” particularly since Massachusetts is one of 16 states that will be audited by the U.S. General Accounting Office. He said the Patrick administration is committed to ensuring that the money is distributed equitably throughout the state. The eight communities selected thus far for transportation funding range from Adams in Berkshire County to Bourne on Cape Cod.
For more information about the stimulus package, go to www.mass.gov/recovery or the MMA’s online Federal Stimulus Guide on this Web site.
Additional Resources Simon gives federal stimulus fund update
Simon gives federal stimulus fund update
The state will have limited flexibility in how it may use an estimated $8.7 billion allocated to Massachusetts between now and fiscal 2011, according to Jeffrey Simon, the state official overseeing the distribution of federal stimulus funds.
When the president and Congress began working on the stimulus package in December, “We thought there’d be big blocks of money coming into the states with lots and lots of flexibility,” Simon said at the March 25 meeting of the Massachusetts Mayors’ Association in Taunton. “That’s not the way it ended up.”
Federal officials, he said, concluded that the best way to put the money to work quickly was to channel it through existing programs.
Much of the discussion at the mayors’ meeting, also attended by Transportation Secretary James Aloisi, centered on infrastructure projects.
To be eligible for the federal money, local projects must be “shovel-ready,” meaning that they are ready to advertise. On March 13, the Patrick administration announced the first eight municipal projects, most of them involving road resurfacing, that qualified for funding.
The $30 million allocated to the eight projects represents a tiny fraction of roughly $2 billion available for infrastructure-related projects throughout the state. But, Simon said, the state would need $27 billion to fully fund all 8,300 projects that have been submitted by state agencies and municipalities.
“Any way you cut it, there’s going to be a lot of great projects that are not funded, simply because we don’t have the money to do it,” he said.
In response to concerns about the difficulty of getting projects to the shovel-ready stage, Simon said he would make sure that state regulations themselves are not preventing projects from being funded.
Overall, Massachusetts is in line to receive $809 million for transportation projects; nearly $2 billion for education; $3.6 billion for “safety-net” programs; $1.3 billion for technology and research; $482 million for clean energy programs; $430 million for housing; nearly $72 million for public safety; and $90 million for labor and workforce development.
Simon said more detailed federal guidelines are expected within 30 to 45 days indicating how money channeled through each of these categories can be deployed. He suggested that in some cases, current guidelines may appear incongruous. He noted, for example, that there are some funds available for fire stations, but none for police stations, schools or municipal administration buildings.
Simon emphasized that the federal government is requiring stimulus aid to be put to work in a matter of months. Road projects need to be out to bid within 120 days of when the stimulus bill was signed into law on Feb. 17; for transit projects, the period is 180 days.
“If [Massachusetts hasn’t] used all the money that is allotted to [it], the federal government intends to claw back that money, and redistribute it to states that are meeting those kind of timelines,” Simon said.
He reminded local officials that the federal funding stream will end a little more than two years from now, at the end of June 2011. If a project is not completed by the time the federal funding is cut off, the municipality may not be in position to complete it on its own.
Simon said the level of transparency in dispensing the money will be “unprecedented,” particularly since Massachusetts is one of 16 states that will be audited by the U.S. General Accounting Office. He said the Patrick administration is committed to ensuring that the money is distributed equitably throughout the state. The eight communities selected thus far for transportation funding range from Adams in Berkshire County to Bourne on Cape Cod.
For more information about the stimulus package, go to www.mass.gov/recovery or the MMA’s online Federal Stimulus Guide on this Web site.
Written by MMA Associate Editor Mitch Evich
