Archive: Opinions

When Barack Obama is sworn in as President of the United States later this month he wants to spend a trillion dollars, give or take a few hundred billion, to stimulate the economy in a Roosevelt-like WPA (Works Progress Administration) - style program that he hopes will create jobs while incidentally fixing the country's infrastructure.

My first reaction was, whose trillion is that?  Are my kids going to have to pay it?  I am always suspicious when people want to spend money they don't have.  I am even more suspicious when people want to spend other peoples' money that they don't have.

When I had lunch today I saw a report on television news that Porn industry executives say they should get $5 billion due to a 30% downturn in XXX-rated video sales (though the news anchors weren't sure that the claim wasn't being made to make fun of all the other industries that are lining up for a handout).

And while there is certainly a frenzy to get a piece of this rather enormous pie, I did see a couple of groups this week who are also eying that pie with hope.  And, incidentally, with actual projects that fit Obama's vision.  One of those groups was the Lansing Town Board.

"What (Obama is) looking at is the infrastructure of the country," noted Town Councilman Bud Shattuck at Wednesday's Town Board meeting.  "Roads, bridges, water and sewer projects.  Our County Legislator Mike Sigler and a couple of other County Legislators are meeting with Congressman Arcuri on Friday to look at all the possibilities, including relooking at our large sewer project."

Shattuck said that through the 1970s the federal government paid 75% of projects like these, and the State contributed 12.5%.  That left 12.5% for the municipalities that benefited to raise.  Shattuck says that could lower the almost $1,000 it would have cost per Equivalent Dwelling Unit (EDU) to between $150 to $200 per year.  "That is doable," he said.  "It certainly supports the County's affordable housing initiatives."

Let's face it -- whether you agree with spending that kind of money or not, Washington politicians are going to spend it.  These days spending that kind of money -- whether the country has it or not -- is politically correct.

If that is the case, I hope they will spend it on local projects that will benefit municipalities, and not just give it away and watch it go down -- well -- the sewer.  In my opinion the county legislators are quite right to ask for municipal projects that will create local jobs and benefit the communities in the long term.  The four or five million it would take is a drop in the bucket in that trillion.

That will raise the federal tax base, which will help pay off that enormous debt, while also benefiting local municipal entities' own tax base.  Here in Lansing it will also breath some life into the idea of a town center, which at the heart of it means planning for a Lansing that people who live here would like to live in, rather than a Lansing that develops haphazardly in unpredictable (and unsavory) ways.

In light of the State turning down the Town's request to spend money already allotted to Lansing for sewer on a stand-alone plant, Obama's plan actually breathes some hope into what appeared to be a dead end.

It brings the idea of economic stimulus home in a tangible way.  Economic stimulus is no longer some removed concept that we hear about on the news.  It could bring real benefits to Lansing if our legislators are clever and successful.

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