I read a couple of really great commentaries r(e below) on the broad brush criteria that will be used to determine which projects get monies from the Stimulus package. I have come to one conclusion. A project is eligible if it is 'Shovel Ready' by Democrats and 'Passes The Smell Test ' by Republicans So, I have created the cover page that could be used for the Stimulus Package. What say you American Taxpayer? Macombexec -

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Story: Monday, January 26, 2009

Amber Arellano

Extend Obama's transparency pledge to Michigan

Michigan will receive millions of dollars under President Barack Obama's new economic stimulus package, which Congress is expected to approve by mid-February. Our state surely needs it. But will it help Michiganians gain new skills and get new jobs, and how much? And who gets to decide? It's a secret. That's right. You and I, American taxpayers, will go into a collective $2 trillion in debt due to the stimulus. But we Michiganians don't get to have a voice in, or even know of, how Michigan is planning to spend that money. Unlike other 18 other states, Michigan leaders are saying almost nothing about their plans for spending the Obama money. Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration isn't sharing its working list of potential stimulus projects with anyone. On Friday, Granholm's spokesperson Liz Boyd wouldn't even say what role the governor would play in the decision-making process. That is troubling on many fronts. Obama has pledged this project -- and his government -- will be the most transparent in American history. Apparently Lansing didn't get the message. That's a problem because without the Michigan public's watchful eye, Obama's stimulus could become just another pork project -- and a waste of an once-in-a-lifetime federal investment into our state.

New prez, same Michigan

Obama's administration rightly is designing the recovery package to not only stimulate the economy short-term, but also to work toward creating a long-term, sustainable Knowledge Economy job base. For the sake of speed, his team largely will leave it up to states' existing delivery systems to decide how to spend the money. That's the wrong path for Michigan, where the spending will likely be allocated by the state Department of Transportation. For decades, MDOT has taken a traditional approach to investment, with little or no economic gains. "Left to their own devices, states tend to focus on state and rural roads," says Amy Liu, deputy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program of the nonpartisan Brookings Institution. Liu was part of Obama's transition team on the stimulus package. "If states do what they've always done, it will do nothing to stimulate the economy in the long run," she added. Transportation officials' leadership on this front makes even less sense today during the global knowledge economy era, when investments in human capital strategies, such as worker retraining, produce greater payoffs. What makes more sense is for Granholm to guide the investments based upon a strategic plan that leverages new jobs and benefits for average Michiganians. Is Granholm using such a plan to decide what Michigan projects will be funded? Who is deciding? Who knows? Her spokesperson Boyd declined to say. When asked when Michigan would post its working list of potential stimulus projects, Boyd said: "We're committed to transparency. I'm just going to leave it at that."

Michiganians' voice

The risk of simply "leaving it at that" is that secret processes are perfect for political wrangling and wasteful pork spending. Agrees Liu: "Once the money hits the states, the concern is, it will become pork." And too many states like Michigan are not consulting with strategic advisers and metropolitan leaders about what investments they could make to leverage high-quality jobs and development. In Missouri, for example, the state Department of Transportation recently released its "shovel-ready" list of stimulus-funded projects. Not one project was in St. Louis, despite the fact that the city generates 46 percent of state economic output. In Michigan, the Granholm administration has asked municipalities to come up with their lists of "shovel-ready" projects ready to be built within the next few months. But most local officials seem to be confused about what projects meet the criteria. The Granholm administration says it has to rush the list's development -- which is expected to be completed by this week -- because Obama wants to spend the stimulus quickly. However, a Congressional Budget Office study found less than half of the package's money for infrastructure and discretionary programs would be spent by Oct. 1, 2010. The more likely reason behind the short-staffed, overworked Granholm administration's secrecy: It's easier not to engage community and business leaders and the public. "States know if they release the list, there will be a debate," Liu says. "But there should be a debate. The investments need to be done based on merit, based on the quality of investment, and by hiding them, they become subject to political influence." Michiganians deserve to have a state strategic plan that makes quality its number one guiding priority in this stimulus spending spree, not speed, not backward Lansing traditions. As American citizens, we also deserve to have a voice in how the money will be spent in our state. It's up to Granholm to ensure we do. +Amber Arellano is a Detroit News editorial writer whose weekly column on politics and culture runs online. E-mail her at aarellano@detnews.com.+ Link: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090126/OPINION03/901260313 -

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Lobbyists skirt Obama's earmark ban

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS - 12 hours ago WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama's ban on earmarks in the $825 billion economic stimulus bill doesn't mean interest groups, lobbyists and lawmakers won't be able to funnel money to pet projects. They're just working around it - and perhaps inadvertently making the process more secretive. The projects run the gamut: a Metrolink station that needs building in Placentia, Calif.; a stretch of beach in Sandy Hook, N.J., that could really use some more sand; a water park in Miami. There are thousands of projects like those that once would have been gotten money upfront but now are left to scramble for dollars at the back end of the process as "ready to go" jobs eligible for the stimulus plan. The result, as The Associated Press learned in interviews with more than a dozen lawmakers, lobbyists and state and local officials, is a shadowy lobbying effort that may make it difficult to discern how hundreds of billions in federal money will be parceled out. "'No earmarks' isn't a game-ender," said Peter Buffa, former mayor of Costa Mesa, Calif. "It just means there's a different way of going about making sure the funding is there." It won't be in legislative language that overtly sets aside money for them. That's the infamous practice known as earmarking, which Obama and Democratic congressional leaders have agreed to nix for the massive stimulus package, expected to come up for a House vote this week. Instead, the money will be doled out according to arcane formulas spelled out in the bill and in some cases based on the decisions of Obama administration officials, governors and state and local agencies that will choose the projects. "Somebody's going to earmark it somewhere," said Howard Marlowe, a consultant for a coalition working to preserve beaches. Lobbyists are hard at work figuring out ways to grab a share of the money for their clients, but the new rules mean they're doing so indirectly - and sometimes in ways that are impossible to track. Congressional earmarks have had a bad name since the 2004 scandal that sent superlobbyist Jack Abramoff to prison and earned the congressional spending committees a new nickname: "The Favor Factory." Obama, who campaigned promising a more transparent and accountable government, is advocating a system that will eventually let the public track exactly where stimulus money goes through an Internet-powered search engine. In addition, Democratic lawmakers have devised an elaborate oversight system, including a new board to review how the money is spent. But none of that will happen until after the bill becomes law. Even critics of the earmarks system acknowledge that specifying projects upfront offers some measure of transparency. "We hate earmarks, but at least it's a way of tracking where influence is had," said Keith Ashdown of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. "There is a challenge now that projects will be added behind closed doors without a paper trail." Indeed, some lawmakers hearing from local groups say they're doing their own lobbying of governors and state and local officials who could have say-so over the funds. "I've talked to my governor and suggested some things I think are important in our area," said Republican Rep. C.W. Bill Young, who represents St. Petersburg, Fla. "He knows what the needs are." Democratic Rep. Ed Pastor of Arizona suggested it's not entirely accurate to say there will be no earmarks in the measure. "There are and there aren't," Pastor said. "A lot of it depends on what the formula looks like." For instance, the House measure, which includes $358 billion for road, water and energy programs among others, gives priority to transportation projects in high-unemployment areas that could be begun and completed quickly and that state and metropolitan transportation authorities have included in their long-term plans. In California, Buffa, now board chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority, said he's changed his strategy from asking for specific projects to pleading for more favorable general guidelines, including more money for infrastructure projects overall and a formula that lets cities - not states - decide how to spend it. His organization has enlisted Potomac Partners, a large firm that specializes in lobbying for project spending, to help. In most cases, lawmakers know exactly which projects in their districts can benefit from the money, even though the legislation won't spell them out. State and local officials have released lists of projects that could start quickly and be completed within a few years. In Orange County, they include freeway improvements and the Placentia Metrolink station. The American Shore and Beach Preservation Association, which is pushing for more water projects to be funded, wants repair and restoration of beaches from Sandy Hook, N.J., to Newport Beach, Calif. Members of Congress are privately outlining their priorities, too. "Everybody's making their list and checking it twice," said Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the minority leader. "You are inevitably going to have a lot of projects that are not going to pass the smell test." Some groups are careful not to get too specific, fearing that public scrutiny could draw unwelcome attention to projects easily caricatured as special-interest goodies, such as a 2007 earmark for spinach growers that found its way into an Iraq war spending bill or the now-infamous "Bridge to Nowhere" in Alaska. The United States Conference of Mayors released a 300-plus-page list of some $150 billion in "ready-to-go" projects that quickly became fodder for criticism. It included money for the Miami water park, which McConnell has ridiculed publicly, and a skate park in Portland, Maine. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials was more guarded about its list of 5,000 projects totaling $64 billion. No specific projects were mentioned - just the number in each state and an overall dollar amount - making it impossible for lawmakers, advocacy groups or members of the public to criticize any one item. Peter J. "Jack" Basso, an association executive, said it's up to states to decide what goes on their "ready-to-go" wish lists, but that the projects must meet rigorous tests including clearing environmental reviews. "We really rely on them to pick things that, frankly, are not bridges to nowhere," Basso said. Link: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5is2ajZFflDRyzIc9IpyEYap8rn8wD95UNN0O0