In anticipation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the U.S. Conference of Mayors is calling on Congress and the President to fund a Main Street Recovery Plan to the tune of $180 Billion as part of the stimulus package. The proposal outlines ten programs which the mayors claim will "create jobs now, improve the infrastructure that the private sector needs to succeed, help the small businesses of Main Street America, and have lasting economic and environmental benefits."
Naturally, it wasn't long before a group of transparency-loving volunteers (sound familiar?) responded by creating StimulusWatch.org, a wiki-based site that allows you to not only search for projects by city, but to vote and comment on the merits of each.
According to StimulusWatch, the total amount requested for projects in Tennessee is a whopping $340 Million. So where does Chattanooga rank? Off the charts—literally. While there are more than $60 Million worth of projects listed for neighboring Cleveland, none were included for the scenic city. Sure, there are plenty of other ways to get our hands on stimulus funds, but the omission was surprising.
Given that earnest opinion writers of Chattanooga keep touting Mayor Littlefield's ability to "access Federal dollars," we assume there is simply a lack of "shovel-ready" projects around town. Wouldn't you agree?
Paul Smith on Feb. 12, 2009
Where are Kinsey & Corker when you need a mayor? There are no shovel ready projects because our esteemed Mayor Littlefield has done NOTHING. Except of course, opening the door so all of our quality politicians could recruit VW. Four years and we have no projects ready, and he is asking for your vote? Almost laughable.
0_o on Feb. 12, 2009
Woah woah woah! I thought last week Chattanoogans were crying about big government and now we are bitter we are not getting any of it?
David Morton on Feb. 12, 2009
George Will said it best:
"Beneath Americans’ perfunctory disapproval of government deficits lurks an inconvenient truth: They enjoy deficits, by which they are charged less than a dollar for a dollar’s worth of government."
ShantiF on Feb. 12, 2009
there is nothing for Nashville or Memphis, either... I don't think this is the final draft. I agree with 0_o... our representative is Zach Wamp, who vehemently opposed the bill in the first place. If we got what we deserved for electing such a right-wing politician, we wouldn't get one cent of stimulus, just some tax cuts for rich people to squirrel away.
irrelevant on Feb. 12, 2009
"tax cuts for rich people to squirrel away" -Sounds like typical class envy, or did you flunk Economics in school? Taxes drain money from productive citizens and give it to non-productive citizens. If you want to stimulate the economy, cut taxes on those most likely to create new jobs. Works every time. While I don't agree with Zach Wamp often, in this case he was right - the 'stimulus' bill is thinly-veiled pork and deficit spending. Governments can only redistribute, they do not create - the jobs they create come at the expense of jobs in the private sector that did not get created, and given the inefficiency of government in the first place you can figure for every job 'created' by the government, it drained enough money from the economy to have created 4 to 10 real jobs.
David Morton on Feb. 12, 2009
Not trying to brandish my liberal stripes too much here (in my defense, I quoted George Will 3 comments ago), there is a pretty substantial argument to be made that the wealth being redistributed is a direct result of labor and resources, which, historically speaking, haven't always been properly valued in our capitalist-driven economy. Those questions have been debated by people way smarter than you or I for decades, so I don't think we'll reach a conclusion today.
The reality (whether you agree with it or not) is that this stimulus plan was going to pass Congress, and Zach Wamp could have done more to try and secure taxpayer funds for Chattanooga. If the federal government is going to redistribute Chattanooga taxes, then I would prefer for that money to go back into Chattanooga rather than Knoxville or New York.
It should be noted though, that this is just a list of the projects requested by the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and as far as I can tell, doesn't reflect the actual contents of the stimulus bill. Mayor Littlefield should have been more active in requesting federal funds. Period. The City of Chattanooga is way more important to me than pure, political ideology.
Sumit Khanna on Feb. 16, 2009
There are plenty of shovel ready programs like that massive project on the riverfront. You know, fixing the waterfall/stairway that was falling apart because of shotty construction? I heard that's going to run over a million.
Roxy on Feb. 20, 2009
The "stimulus" package was a fait a compli before it ever came up for a vote in either house! The only issue to haggle over for our "representatives" in Washington was how much it was going to cost the taxpayers.
It is surprising, though, that our local officials wouldn't already have a "wish list" of sorts prepared.... Is it not human nature to be thinking about "what if"?