how New Hampshire could benefit from President Obama’s stimulus plan

As the U.S. Congress considers one of the costliest bills ever to hit its desks, many state officials and citizens are wondering what New Hampshire stands to gain from President Barack Obama’s proposed $825 billion economic stimulus plan.

The latest version of the proposal put together by Obama’s economic team and House Democratic leaders reportedly calls for federal spending of $550 billion and tax cuts totaling $275 billion over the next two years. Votes on the controversial bill known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan should come within the next few weeks, kicking off the freshly inaugurated president’s first term with a mighty big bang. The plan is intended to generate up to 4 million jobs nationally.
Because the bill has not been finalized, it’s unclear how much money would funnel into New Hampshire or how it would be distributed within the state. But many state agencies and municipalities already have their stimulus wish lists drawn up—including Portsmouth and Dover.

City officials in Portsmouth last month drafted a letter to U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter outlining a number of priority projects totaling $165 million. Dover officials sent a similar letter to U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen with requests totaling more than $517 million.

Shea-Porter has met with officials from Portsmouth and other communities to offer guidance as the bill unfolds. During a phone interview on Jan. 16, the Democratic congresswoman said the U.S. House of Representatives was still working to finalize many details of the bill, but she is hopeful that the final package, which she expects to be signed by mid-February, will help local communities struggling with the costs of education, health care, and infrastructure demands.

But Shea-Porter does have some concerns about the latest draft of the bill, which she hoped to work out with her colleagues during meetings over the next couple of weeks. Noting that future generations will have to pick up the tab for the stimulus package, she said her emphasis is on lasting infrastructure that could put shovels in the ground within six months.

“We are borrowing this money, make no mistake about it,” Shea-Porter said. “I think it’s our responsibility to leave some infrastructure behind.”

Shea-Porter said she also wants to make sure tax breaks afforded by the stimulus package focus on middle class workers and not upper class residents. “I totally support the payroll tax break for the middle class, but I think they might be setting the income level too high. I really want to make sure we’re very, very targeted to the middle class,” she said.

She said funds will be distributed in a formulaic fashion, giving transportation money directly to state departments of transportation and sending large sums to state governments. But some money could also be sent directly to municipalities and local school boards. The key will be ensuring that such funds are spent appropriately. Shea-Porter said some mayors had some “crazy ideas” on their stimulus wish lists. “We don’t want to see this money used for planting a new flower bed in town,” she said.

As the bill is written now, stimulus money will be used to help unemployed people get food stamps and unemployment checks; fund transportation projects; offer $7,500 breaks for homebuyers if they buy before July 1; assist families trying to pay for higher education; and bolster Medicaid. “It’s a potpourri,” Shea-Porter said.

Sen. Judd Gregg has said that New Hampshire could stand to get as much as $300 million for infrastructure improvements from the stimulus package. Gregg could not be reached for comment last week, but his press secretary Laena Fallon said the Republican senator will leave it up to Gov. John Lynch and transportation commissioner George Campbell Jr. to determine the best use of the funds.

“We’re still waiting to figure out what exactly the details are going to be for the state, and that’s unknown,” Fallon said. “More details will probably become available after the inauguration.”

Fallon said Gregg has suggested a couple of important highway projects, including rebuilding Little Bay Bridge on Route 16 from Newington to Dover, where traffic tends to bottleneck at rush hour. He has also recommended widening Interstate 93 and increasing broadband Internet access in areas like the North Country.

In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 4 titled “How to Make Sure the Stimulus Works,” Gregg warned the Democratic leadership to spend stimulus funds carefully. He said the government should focus on financing public works that make the nation more productive.

“We need things like roads, bridges, mass transit capital expansion, integrated IT in public industries like health care, and military recapitalization,” Gregg wrote. “The test should be simple: Is it necessary and will it make us more competitive as a nation?”

Like Gregg, Gov. Lynch is also anxiously awaiting details on how the stimulus plan will work. Lynch’s press secretary Colin Manning had precious little to say about the Democratic governor’s plans for any stimulus funds. “He really believes that the stimulus package should be used to protect our nation’s most vulnerable citizens and be geared toward that,” Manning said.
Although exact amounts are still unclear, Shea-Porter said citizens around the state and nation will be happy to see a high level of accountability written into the bill. She noted that she twice voted against the $700 billion financial bailout that passed as the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

“To me, the best part of this conversation and what we have learned from the previous administration is that we are going to have very tight accountability,” Shea-Porter said.

According to numbers provided by the Congressional Research Service, the current language of the bill would entitle New Hampshire to as much as $95 million for water infrastructure funds; $138 million for highway infrastructure investment funds; and $7.7 million for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
state transportation

The N.H. Department of Transportation has presented Lynch and the state Legislature with a list of priority projects that could benefit from the package. The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials circulated a national survey in December asking state departments of transportation to identify highway projects that would be ready to go within 180 days if funding is available. All 50 states responded with more than 5,000 total projects worth $64 billion, including $230.5 million worth of projects in New Hampshire.

Local stimulus projects on the state DOT’s list include deploying intelligent transportation systems on Interstate 95 between Portsmouth and Seabrook ($4 million); replacing a bridge on Route 9 in Dover ($4.7 million); painting the Piscataqua River Bridge on I-95 in Portsmouth ($11 million); conducting structural overlay work on Route 101 from Epping to Exeter and Exeter to Hampton ($15.5 million total); and paving and resurfacing I-95 from the Portsmouth Traffic Circle to the Piscataqua River Bridge ($1.5 million).

Overall, New Hampshire’s $230.5 million requests are comparable in cost to those in Maine and Massachusetts, both around $220 million. The highest amount was seen in Utah, which listed 136 projects totaling $10.8 billion.

Gregg’s suggestion of rebuilding Little Bay Bridge was not on the list, nor was replacing Portsmouth’s Memorial Bridge, which currently tops the state’s red list of priority projects. DOT spokesman Bill Boynton said Memorial Bridge, which spans the Piscataqua River from Portsmouth to Kittery, Maine, was not included on the list because it would not necessarily be ready for action in the 180-day timeframe. The bridge is jointly owned by New Hampshire and Maine, and the two states have not come to a funding agreement for bridge repairs or replacement.

The DOT also put together a list of rail projects that could benefit from stimulus funds, totaling $310 million. The plans involve upgrading the “capitol corridor” rail line that runs through Concord, Manchester, Nashua and Lowell, Mass., so that it can carry more freight, thereby keeping some trucks off the roads.

Although none of the rail projects would be ready to go in 180 days, Boynton said they would conform to Obama’s desire for green projects. The upgrades could also pave the way for passenger rail activity in the future.

The proposed stimulus package could help the N.H. DOT in a number of ways. Primarily, it could accelerate construction on I-93, the Manchester Airport Access Road and preservation projects; jumpstart railroad projects; and help reduce shortfall in the department’s ten-year plan.

“Certainly, we’re excited about this possibility in terms of not only improving the transportation system, but also for putting people to work,” Boynton said.

However, the stimulus plan would not help the DOT recover from its operating budget shortfall of $153 million for the 2010-11 biennium, a deficit expected to get worse as maintenance projects continue into the summer, Boynton said.

community projects

Portsmouth Mayor Tom Ferrini and the City Council outlined a total of six projects in their letter to Rep. Shea-Porter. City manager John Bohenko said the projects address basic infrastructure needs and are ready to go out for bid should funds become available. Topping the list is replacement of the city’s water treatment plant in Madbury, a project estimated to cost around $25 million.

“The top priority is the water treatment plant, which is 95 percent designed and could be shovel-ready in 120 days,” Bohenko said. “We’re very hopeful that if infrastructure is important within the stimulus bill, we believe that is a project that is ready to go and meets many of the criteria.”

Other projects Bohenko thinks would meet those criteria include renovating and reconstructing Portsmouth Middle School for $41 million; completing citywide sewer separation projects for $32 million; constructing a new public parking facility downtown for $15 million; replacing the wastewater treatment plant at Peirce Island for $50 million; and conducting various energy improvement projects in municipal buildings for $1 million.

Conducting this work would not only fulfill infrastructure and educational needs, Bohenko said, but would create jobs and generate business for companies supplying resources for the projects, thereby stimulating the regional economy on several levels. “It would also reduce the burden on local taxpayers, thus freeing up more money for them to spend (at local businesses),” he said.

Dover city manager Mike Joyal said the projects proposed in his city would produce similar effects. Dover’s list of possible stimulus projects is twice as long and more than three times as costly as Portsmouth’s list. But Joyal stressed that the list covers legitimate infrastructure needs that would generate jobs and have a spin-off effect on local businesses. 

“We have these projects ready and able to be put out to bid and to create jobs and opportunities for our local residents,” Joyal said. “Our putting together this list and providing this information is not in hopes of getting a handout.”

The first item on Dover’s list is to complete dredging of the Cochecho River for $4 million. A much more expensive item includes improvements to the turnpike between Dover and Newington for $401 million.

Some other projects on the list include building a downtown parking facility for $10 million; replacing the Whittier Street Bridge for $3.25 million; constructing a water tower in the city’s north end for $6.6 million; building a new police station for $12.6 million; and renovating Dover High School for $45 million. The list also includes general improvements to the city’s River Street pump station, sewer lines, municipal buildings, water system and underground utilities.

Joyal said all the projects on the list have either been proposed as part of a multi-year capital improvement plan or have been engineered in the past but were “indefinitely deferred because the priority for funding was not high enough to supersede other projects.”

In their letter to Sen. Shaheen, Joyal and Mayor Scott Myers note that Dover has benefited from federal economic recovery plans in the past. Bellamy Park, located on Bellamy Road off Route 155, and the Dover City Hall on Central Avenue were both constructed in the 1930s with funds from the government’s economic stimulus package during the Great Depression, according to the letter.

Now, as the nation once again finds itself in economic shambles, area communities are hoping the new president’s plan will help them regain their composure.