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Sunday edition: States get the shaft in federal stimulus bill

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Illinois

* From Mclatchy, we have the list of apparently agreed Senate cuts to the House-passed [and subsequent Senate add-ons] federal stimulus bill…

Here’re the cuts, according to Sen. Leahy’s office. Based on this list, the governors who’ve been the strongest supporters of the stimulus bill, because it offered them some relief in a terrible budget year, will cry the loudest. Schools, environmental programs and broadband expansion projects also take a hit.

Billion dollar cuts

$40 billion State Fiscal Stabilization

$16 billion School Construction

$7.5 billion of State Incentive Grants

$5.8 billion Health Prevention Activity

$4.5 billion GSA

$3.5 billion Higher Ed Construction (Eliminated)

$3.5 billion Federal Bldgs Greening

$2.25 Neighborhood Stabilization (Eliminate)

$2 billion broadband

$2 billion HIT Grants

$1.25 billion project based rental

$1 billion Head Start/Early Start

$1.2 billion in Retrofiting Project 8 Housing

$1 billion Energy Loan Guarantees

Million dollar cuts

$100 million FSA modernization

$50 million CSERES Research

$65 million Watershed Rehab

$30 million SD Salaries

$100 Distance Learning

$98 million School Nutrition

$50 million aquaculture

$100 million NIST

$100 million NOAA

$100 million Law Enforcement Wireless

$50 million Detention Trustee

$25 million Marshalls Construction

$100 million FBI Construction

$300 million Federal Prisons

$300 million BYRNE Formula [State and Local Law Enforcement]

$140 million BYRNE Competitive [State and Local Law Enforcement]

$10 million State and Local Law Enforcement

$50 million NASA

$50 million Aeronautics

$50 million Exploration

$50 million Cross Agency Support

$200 million NSF

$100 million Science

$300 million Fed Hybrid Vehicles

$50 million from DHS

$200 million TSA

$122 million for Coast Guard Cutters, modifies use

$25 million Fish and Wildlife

$55 million Historic Preservation

$20 million working capital fund

$200 million Superfund

$165 million Forest Svc Capital Improvement

$90 million State & Private Wildlife Fire Management

$75 million Smithsonian

$600 million Title I (No Child Left Behind)

* Associated Press on the reduced money for states…

Changes included cutbacks in projects that likely would give the economy a quick lift, like $40 billion in aid to state governments for education and other programs. […]

Among the most difficult cuts… was the elimination of $40 billion in aid to states, money that economists say is an efficient way to pump up the economy by preventing layoffs, cuts in services or tax increases. [Emphasis added]

That’s exactly right.

* US Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell apparently doesn’t understand what he’s saying…

“And, we know for sure that the big spending programs of the New Deal did not work. In 1940, unemployment was still 15%. And, it’s widely agreed among economists, that what got us out of the doldrums that we were in during the Depression was the beginning of World War II.

The “beginning of World War II” brought massive spending increases, the likes of which were unseen during the Great Depression. So, if that’s McConnell’s model, then this ought to be a far larger bill.

* Related…

* Ray LaHood, speaking from Peoria, talks about infrastructure

posted by Rich Miller
Sunday, Feb 8, 09 @ 1:05 pm

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