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Snipped from the rough draft of the "stimulus act":
"... For an additional amount for the cost of direct loans
13 and grants for the rural water, waste water, and waste
14 disposal programs authorized by sections 306 and 310B
15 and described in section 381E(d)(2) of the Consolidated
16 Farm and Rural Development Act, $1,380,000,000... "
Think Hawaii'll get some of that??/[}
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Puna: Our roosters crow first
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eightfingers asks:
13 and grants for the rural water, waste water, and waste
14 disposal programs authorized by sections 306 and 310B
15 and described in section 381E(d)(2) of the Consolidated
16 Farm and Rural Development Act, $1,380,000,000... "
Think Hawaii'll get some of that?
Hawaii will get what the powers that be ask for
do ya think they will ask for whats good for them, or for Hawaii
woof woof woof
lurking in darkness, maggo's stump wags in anticipation
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We shall soon find out because recovery.gov (
www.recovery.gov) is now live and as of March 3, 2009, Federal Agencies will begin reporting use of funds. According to the website, recovery.gov will provide up-to-date on the expenditure of funds. It is projected that 16,000 jobs will be created in Hawaii in the next two years. I hope they are right and that these jobs go to residents of Hawaii.
This so called stimulus package, is the equivalent of eating our seed corn but it is worse, because we are borrowing the money to buy the corn.
Once the the money is spent, we will have nothing but more debt and a much weaker dollar.
Historically, economies are stimulated by lowering taxes. Lower taxes also cause so much more money to change hands that the government actually starts taking in more money. It is with these extra receipts that we can build bridges etc.
You have to remember that it is when businesses make and sell products and services that creates jobs and wealth. Taxes paid on the wealth is what pays for everything.
This bill will cause the coming recession to be a full blown depression. And even it the government taxes 1005 of every transaction they will go broke.
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The depression was coming anyway. We tried just lowering taxes as an economic strategy for eight years. What it lead to is global corporations gone wild and no government services. In Puna, the lack of government services is becoming acute. I would add that the stimulus contains plenty of tax cuts for the middle and lower classes.
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What we need to do IMHO, is start referring to this plan for what it really is - The Union Bailout Plan. Geesh, look at these projects and who do you think will get the jobs??? There will be very little new jobs created. These projects will go to the same people that currently get the work. In Hawaii especially, that is the union contractors. The majority of projects whether here or the ones flaunted on TV fit in a very narrow band of skills. What I see happening is these stimulus projects will get done in lieu of any other scheduled project by the same small group of people. Oh, we will hear about great number of jobs, but I suspect there will be little to prove they were truly new jobs. The chances of hiring recently laid off Joe Punatic are very slim unless he fits into one of these construction slots.
What the stimulus ought to do is provide funds for projects that had little to no hope of ever being financed. Here is (was) an opportunity that the county could have had a program that gainfully employed any and every willing teenager over the summer school break and accomplished any number of labor intensive, but low skill, minimal material projects. And that would have been a relatively small dollar amount with huge payoffs.
The one things will can count on being stimulated will be all these political egos - "Look what I did for you" BS If the Mayor truly wanted to make the program stimulative and still conduct business as usual, how about he cut the county property taxes by equal amount to what he gets? That way, he can get credit for adding to the millions of bogus jobs (wink, wink) and the rest of us would have a few more dollars to spend due to lower property taxes - dollars we'd likely spend locally, having a multiplier effect.
Oh well, nice to fantasize...
David
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Legalizing a certain weed would be a great stimulus project that would create taxpaying jobs that already exist in the criminal sector.
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centipede,
Shhh! We're not supposed to think about that.
You are certainly right, though.
I wonder just how much tax revenue and how many good paying jobs a legal industry here would bring in per year?
Maybe ten, fifteen million in tax revenues and hundreds of new jobs and businesses?
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How about stimulus money for infrastructure, roads water pipes and broadband? .... Me thinks a good read of the plan and some grant writing by the different associations may be in order.
On the mainland my place was vacated by the boy scouts in the 1860 's because of the bad roads, Last year I saw three cases of sheared off ball joints its that bad. (dumb kids going way too fast)
Now all of a sudden the govt is going to put in five miles of 20 foot wide asphalt and cross the creek six times. Kinda cool to see my taxes come my way for a change.
There will be a lot of cash allocated for infrastructure in Hawaii, may be a good time to get some roads and water pipes in
in the meantime:
http://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session2009/lists/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=HB&billnumber=1191
seems to be addressing the other topic
