Stimulus spending shuffle

Inter Lake editorial

Troubling problems continue to be revealed in federal stimulus spending, and we expect that will continue to be the case. Don't forget the context in which the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed by Congress in February: it had to be done now, now, now - with hardly any debate and no lawmakers reading the bill - in order to give the economy an immediate, much-needed boost.

Well, that boost simply hasn't happened.

Under a headline saying, "Stimulus Funds Will Have a Gradual Effect," the Washington Post reported the not-so-surprising news this week that spending in Washington, D.C., is "definitely underway" but it takes time for big bureaucracies to gear up for big spending.

With a national unemployment rate reaching 9.4 percent, the White House reports that only $135 billion of the massive $787 billion stimulus funding has been obligated so far. And many federal agencies are acknowledging much or most of the obligated projects won't get started until next year.

Take the Customs and Border Protection agency's plans for rebuilding and renovating five of its Canadian border stations in Montana. Those plans ran into a buzz saw of controversy because the agency intended to use out-of-state general contractors for the projects instead of firms that have done the work before, such as Kalispell's Swank Enterprises.

More recently, with Montana's two senators weighing in on the issue, the General Services Administration and Customs and Border Protection have announced that there will be a priority for hiring local subcontractors for the projects. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont, has organized a workshop in Great Falls this weekend to help Montana contractors eventually find their way to stimulus spending.

Whatever happened to the widespread insistence that qualified stimulus projects had to be 'shovel ready?" Customs and Border Protection officials are hoping to break ground on the border station projects next April, after they've spent the long winter on designing the projects. As we recall, small towns like Eureka have much-needed infrastructure projects, but they aren't considered adequately shovel ready because design and engineering aren't complete and the town can't afford to do that work for projects that may or may not get stimulus funding.

The workshop that Tester is holding is a good thing. There should be more of that type of medicine to guide stimulus spending to where it's needed most, considering the unstimulating nature of this spending so far.