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Okay, this headline is misleading. You won’t get cash for your Osterizer, but next year, Kentuckians can receive the federal rebate for replacing old appliances with energy efficient models.
You can get $40 to $400 for the replacement. You don’t have to haul that hold fridge to the store, but the government asks you to properly recycle it.
Business First has some details. No word on how this might help Louisville’s GE Appliance Park plant.
The $300 million program was funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Allotments were based on each state’s population, according to a news release.
The Indiana Office of Energy Development last week said that it will use the $6 million it is receiving from the federal government to offer rebates of $500 per heating, ventilation and air conditioning system purchased. It also will offer rebates of as much as $1,000 for the purchase of geothermal heat pumps.
When the program begins in Kentucky in spring 2010, Kentucky residents who buy an eligible Energy Star-rated appliance from a Kentucky retailer might be eligible for a rebate.
Kentucky will offer rebates on washing machines, dish washers, refrigerators, freezers, room air conditioners, water heaters, central air conditioners, air source heat pumps, geothermal heat pumps, gas furnaces and gas boilers.
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Unlike the popular “cash for clunkers” program that offered rebates for trading in gas guzzlers for fuel-efficient vehicles, the appliance program doesn’t require consumers to trade in their older appliances, although consumers are “strongly encouraged” to recycle the older units, the release said.
Metro Government’s stimulus page now has a map to show where the federal money will be spent.
Little did I know that the sidewalk construction I walk by every day is a stimulus project. Well, since the sidewalk was torn up before the stimulus package passed, I assume this was a “Shovel-ready” job.
Here’s what we reported on today:
- Poverty Task Force Begins Work In Frankfort
- Preservation Groups Work to Move Civil War Monument
- Louisville Receives Stimulus Grant For Firehouse
- Berman Reacts to District Accountability Scores
- Clark Co. Lawyer Joins Medicaid Fraud Unit
- Plans Announced For Botanical Garden
- Bank Executive Opposes Regulating Financial Industry
- Norton/Anthem Officials To Meet
Here’s what we reported on today:
At the Local Issues Conference today, Governor Steve Beshear said the stimulus kept the state afloat in the recession. He went on to say that the state needs to be aggressive in obtaining and spending the money. Maybe he reads Surowiecki.
Here’s the Federal Government’s official spending by state outline if you want to check up on how much money has come to the commonwealth versus other states.
Millions of federal stimulus dollars for so-called shovel-ready projects will likely be withheld until spring.
Mayor Jerry Abramson says the city has been facing hurdles in trying to get the final approval for $8 million in sidewalk improvements and $5 million in road improvements.
“Hurdles like getting sign-offs from different departments in the environmental area, the archaeological area; hurdles in getting the federal highway department to see that we’re ready and to give us the go ahead to go forward,” he says.
Abramson says the money will be spent, but further delays could delay the spending until the next construction season, which is after winter. He says other cities are facing similar challenges.
James Surowiecki’s essay in this week’s New Yorker addresses how state goverments have the potential to wreck or stall economic recovery.
Think about the $787-billion federal stimulus package. It’s built on the idea that during serious economic downturns the government can use spending increases and tax cuts to counteract the effects of consumers who are cutting back on spending and businesses that are cutting back on investment. So fiscal policy at the national level is countercyclical: as the economy shrinks, government expands. At the state level, though, the opposite is happening. Nearly every state government is required to balance its budget. When times are bad, jobs vanish, sales plummet, investment declines, and tax revenues fall precipitously…
It’s kind of like this, with state governments as the minivan:
Surowiecki also gets into how states don’t always play well enough with each other to get things done.
…federalism is getting in the way of the creation of a “smart” American power grid. This would involve turning the current hodgepodge of regional and state grids into a genuinely national grid, which would detect and respond to problems as they happen, giving users more information about and control over their electricity use, and so on. It could also dramatically reduce our dependence on oil. Wind power could eventually produce as much as twenty per cent of the energy that America consumes. The problem is that the places where most of that wind power can be generated tend to be a long way from the places where most of that power would be consumed. A new grid would enable us to get the power to where it’s needed. But since nobody likes power lines running through his property, building the grid would require overriding or placating the states—and the prospects of that aren’t great.
Don’t think it’s true? How long have we been waiting for Kentucky and Indiana to work together and build some bridges?
While some politicians have been quick to criticize the effects of the federal stimulus, the truth is that less than $60 billion of the $787 billion package has been spent. Until 2010, it probably won’t be possible to tell how well the package worked. Conservatives say it’s salt in the wound, while Paul Krugman and a few other economists have taken the stance that the stimulus is essentially a cotton-ball on a severed limb. (Enough with the medical metaphors.)
But if you’re patient and curious, you can watch stimulus spending in Louisville, Kentucky and nationwide. The state website still needs a little work, but the city page will be updated with spending breakdowns and other wonky info that’s actually really important to have out in the open. Mayor Abramson and local stimulus czar Rick Johnstone have promised that the contracts for all stimulus projects will be posted online, along with information on who bid and how the money will be spent. Too bad 4th Street Live isn’t a stimulus, project, huh? And, too bad some projects may not happen.
No matter what you’re view of the stimulus or your thoughts on the Obama administration’s reluctance to open up some records, you have to admit that it’s nice to have this spending information be accessible. Requiring stimulus recipients to cut down on the difficulty of obtaining public spending records is a good first step. Let’s see if it continues. The e-transparency ordinance mandates that the city post non-stimulus spending online, but the technology hasn’t been set up yet.
Is there anything on any of the recovery sites that you think is missing? Post about it in the comments.
The New York Times reports that states are unevenly doling out transportation money from the federal stimulus package. Despite having bigger populations, urban areas are getting one third or less of the road dollars given to each state, says the article.
The stimulus law provided $26.6 billion for highways, bridges and other transportation projects, but left the decision on how to spend most of it to the states, which have a long history of giving short shrift to major metropolitan areas when it comes to dividing federal transportation money. Now that all 50 states have beat a June 30 deadline by winning approval for projects that will use more than half of that transportation money, worth $16.4 billion, it is clear that the stimulus program will continue that pattern of spending disproportionately on rural areas.
The uneven spending could be caused by state legislators who band together to help rural roads before urban streets. This is a common complaint in Kentucky, with many city residents saying they aren’t fairly represented in the General Assembly.
But there could be another reason behind the uneven stimulus allocations. Al Cross at the Rural Blog says this:
This story was wholly lacking the rural point of view, which could be that many of these rural areas have been waiting for some of these roads for a long time; that rural projects tend to be less complicated, which could fit the “shovel ready” requirement for stimulus projects; that many construction workers on rural projects are likely to commute from metropolitan areas; or that a per-capita analysis isn’t appropriate for evaluating highway projects because of differences in population density. Several rural commenters on the story made the latter point, and others. But we think the reporters should have done it first.
Here’s what we covered today:
- Abramson To Discuss Stimulus In Rhode Island
- U Of L Will Try To Extend Ramsey’s Contract
- U Of L Board Cuts Raises, Increases Tuition
- Agencies Propose Sweeping Changes to Surface Mining
- Kentucky Banks Weathering Financial Storm Well
- Public Works Director Defends Quick Action in Stimulus Proposals
- Explosion Injures Worker, Damages Factory
