With billions in federal funds on the horizon, Somerville has joined the statewide fray to secure a portion of the newly minted stimulus package.
The Bay State stands to gain $11-12 billion from the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and cities and towns are looking to capitalize on these one-time funds to spur local growth.
"Given the multibillion dollar deficits the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is experiencing now, this is like in the theater a deus ex machina to provide us with -- if not a panacea -- some [needed] support to get through difficult times," former Massachusetts Senate President Tom Birmingham told the Daily.
Last month, ahead of the passage of the stimulus package, Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone submitted a 10-item wish list to Gov. Deval Patrick's office with a total price tag of $140,915,000. While local officials do not expect to secure federal funding for all of the projects, they are prioritizing Assembly Square construction, school renovations, roadway repairs and wireless Internet.
According to Curtatone, these initiatives, which are all virtually shovel-ready, will create jobs and jumpstart the ailing economy. "We need to get people back to work and we need to generate new revenue in this commonwealth," he told the Daily.
Most of the federal funds are already earmarked for specific uses, but Massachusetts officials will still have discretion over a sizeable portion. In particular, state officials are looking to spend between $1-2 billion on infrastructure projects.
These discretionary funds have spurred a free-for-all across the state, with local governments scrambling to get a piece of the pie. Like Curtatone, other Massachusetts mayors also submitted requests last month and are now waiting to hear back about which initiatives will get the go-ahead.
"There will be lots of competition," U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) told the Daily. "But my expectation is that the state is going to prioritize ... based on projects that will have a long-term impact in terms of economic development."
Patrick has named Jeffrey Simon, the president of the Boston real estate development services firm Simon Properties and an Experimental College lecturer at Tufts, to oversee the distribution of infrastructure funds. His new title is director of infrastructure investment.
"I'm excited to see a qualified person appointed to that position," Curtatone said. "We look forward to working with him and the governor's office."
Somerville's heftiest request is for $56 million for development in Assembly Square. The project, which has been in the works for years, looks to convert 66.5 acres of former industrial space along the Mystic River into a transit-oriented community.
When completed, the neighborhood will house an IKEA, restaurants, a movie theater and over 2,100 new residential units. Current estimates indicate that between this year and 2013, the project will create 8,000 construction jobs and 4,000 permanent positions.
The project will cost $1.36 billion, but most of the money will come from private sources. Even so, city officials want some stimulus aid for the development. "I think that's a good example of how public investment can leverage a huge return," Curtatone said of the Assembly Square construction.
The city is also looking to do upward of $53 million of work on the East Somerville Community School, to spend over $20 million on the Powder House Community Elementary School and to complete minor renovations at the Brown School.
Meanwhile, local officials have further singled out Broadway Street in East Somerville, the Central Hill Park and Magoun Square as potential targets for federal funds. The cheapest request is $570,000 for a citywide wireless Internet network.
The federal stimulus package drew widespread criticism from congressional Republicans, who by and large rejected the bill and dismissed its allocations as pork. As state officials across the country work to distribute the funds, they will likely face similar criticisms.
But Birmingham, a Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service affiliate and a visiting faculty member in the political science department, cautioned that it is dangerous to dismiss projects just because they appear to be pork.
"One person's pork is another person's bacon, and what one perceives as a pet project may or may not be a good project," he said. "I think you have to do something of an ad hoc analysis on a case-by-case basis ... That's not to say that there isn't pork and there aren't questionable priorities, but there's plenty of legitimate stuff that we can and should do."
According to Birmingham, Bay State officials should focus primarily on infrastructure development projects such as road repairs and the construction of schools.
Since the stimulus package represents a one-time injection of funds into the state's coffers, he said it is dangerous to use the money as a temporary bandage for the state's operating budget. He argued instead for projects that will continue to have a visible impact long after the federal funds dry up.
"I think it would be a big mistake to use this to fill holes in the operational budget, because the money is not going to be there indefinitely," he said.
Still, the bill will also direct funds toward government services like police and fire departments and allow communities to stave off layoffs, all with the hope that a short-term fix will buy local governments time to weather the fiscal storm.
"This is an important down payment on what we need to do to get this economy back on track," McGovern said.
Birmingham agreed. "What this can really do for Massachusetts and states across the country is buy time so you don't have to eviscerate really everything that government does," he said. "By the time your reliance on this money has ended, maybe we're back in a fiscally happier situation."
According to McGovern, the bill is already bringing recovery to towns across the state. He visited Westborough, Mass. yesterday and stopped at the health care IT company eClinicalWorks. "The stimulus is already having an impact," he said. "They're already hiring more people."
Still, Curtatone said it is too early to determine how much of an effect the stimulus package will have on Somerville.
"The legislation was just passed, and we're waiting to see how it will filter down to cities and towns," he said.
In addition to the 10 projects totaling over $140 million, Somerville also included upward of $28 million in supplemental requests in its submission to Patrick's office.
These include petitions for funding for projects ranging from repainting City Hall to renovating the West Branch Library. The city does not expect to secure funding for these 17 additional projects, but local officials wanted to remind the state government of the entirety of Somerville's needs.
"They're smaller projects, so they're definitely not a priority in the current fiscal [situation]," Somerville spokesperson Jaclyn Rossetti said.
Even the projects at the top of the city's wish list are not guaranteed full funding, but Curtatone expects Somerville to fare well in the competition between communities. In particular, he said that Patrick is enthusiastic about the Assembly Square project. "I feel pretty confident that we'll be right up there," he said.
McGovern also noted that there is not enough funding to accommodate all of the requests submitted by local politicians throughout the state.
"I don't expect every one of those projects to be funded, but I do expect -- and I think the entire congressional delegation expects -- that the money will be spent all across the state, not just in Boston," he said.
Nationally, the stimulus package looks to save or create 3.5 million jobs. Around 65 percent of the funding will go toward spending, while the rest will be used for tax breaks.
But McGovern said he preferred the bill the House initially passed, which would have injected $819 billion into the economy and would have depended less on tax cuts.
In particular, McGovern expressed disappointment that the compromise bill approved by both chambers focuses less on school construction, energy and health care IT.
Still, he said he is satisfied with the final product. "I wish it were bigger ... but it's the most perfect thing I've voted for in the past eight years," he said. "We think it could have been better, but that doesn't mean that it's not good ... This is going to help a lot of people, and I'm anxious to have the federal government get the money to the states and cities and towns that need it."
