Stimulus plan must be cautious. Inter Lake editorial

Sen. Jon Tester is absolutely right when he says that a jobs stimulus bill being cooked up in Congress needs to come with accountability, transparency and a serious degree of scrutiny.

Otherwise, it will be nothing more than an unprecedented version of the worst that Washington can produce - the biggest omnibus bill ever devised, packed with an unprecedented amount of hidden earmarks with benefits for political interests rather than public interests.

So far, Congress is talking about a spending package somewhere in the neighborhood of $850 billion, but Barack Obama's advisers are talking along the lines of $1 trillion to be spent over the next two years. The goal for the incoming administration is to save or create 2.5 million jobs over that period, mostly through spending on public infrastructure projects across the country.

In a recent visit with the Inter Lake editorial board, Tester pointed out that there is strong potential for genuine economic stimulus if the money is filtered down through state and local governments for effective projects. The benefits would ripple into the private sector.

Tester acknowledged the need for the money to go to projects that are 'shovel ready." There won't be much stimulation for the economy, after all, if the money is directed at projects that are years from starting.

And that is one of the main problems with large projects such as highway construction or public transportation improvements. Even the ones that are supposedly on the shelf, and ready to go, can face considerable obstacles, such as lawsuits, before they actually get under way.

A good example is Kalispell's long-awaited bypass project, which has been designed but still faces critical hurdles in right-of-way acquisition. Even if some federal stimulus money were aimed at jump-starting the project, we wonder if it actually would get going anytime soon.

As a much better example of an effective use, Tester cited Glacier National Park's Going-to-the-Sun Road comprehensive reconstruction project, which is already under way but in need of additional funding to continue work over the next few years.

There is an urgency for effective, prompt economic stimulus, but we're not entirely convinced that a tide of government spending will provide it, at least not alone. Tester said the stimulus package is likely to include provisions for tax breaks, and he would like to see tax breaks for small business.

While the spending provisions may benefit certain parts of the country and certain industries, such as contracting, tax breaks might be a much more effective way to generate widespread economic stimulus.