East Lansing is among the cities across the nation that are eagerly submitting their proposals to get their cut of the funding from President Barack Obama’s proposed $825 billion stimulus project.
The package before the U.S. Congress could be voted on as soon as Wednesday. It passed Tuesday in the Senate Appropriations Committee, and could receive a Senate vote by early next week.
East Lansing City Manager Ted Staton said the city has drafted a list of potential projects that could use funding from the stimulus package. The list totals about $36 million.
One of the proposed projects is the reconstruction of the entire length of Harrison Avenue, Staton said. It would cost about $1,750,000 for repairs between Mt. Hope Road and Kalamazoo Street.
“We’ve had this on the list of projects to pursue for a couple years now,” Staton said. “The stimulus plan would allow us to get it all to be reconstructed in 2009.”
The city’s original plan for Harrison Avenue was to phase in reconstruction during a three-year time span, beginning in 2010, he said.
Michigan could receive up to $4.6 billion through the stimulus plan, according to the Michigan Municipal League.
“We’re one of the neediest states right now,” said state Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing. “I believe we’ll get that amount of money.”
East Lansing has several other infrastructure projects on its wish list, along with economic development projects, public facility projects and environmental initiatives.
“Over the past eight years, we’ve continued to receive less and less money on state and federal levels,” said Todd Sneathen, director of public works for East Lansing. “This would help us to catch up on things we haven’t been able to afford to do.”
The stimulus package would make funds available through Sept. 30, 2010. Half of infrastructure funding would be required for spending on projects that could begin within 120 days of the package’s enactment.
The stimulus package’s 120-day condition is intended to help states now, not provide funding for future projects, Meadows said.
About $20 million-worth of East Lansing’s proposed projects could be under construction in the first 120 days, Staton said.
Although officials said it is too early to tell when the money would get to the communities whose proposals are accepted, it will be a top priority once the amount of money coming to Michigan is identified, Meadows said.
“Say it happened now,” he said. “I’d say by the end of April, the money would be out in the revenue stream.”
The money from the stimulus package would be distributed to specific projects, not to specific cities, said Arnold Weinfeld, a spokesman for the Michigan Municipal League.
“We’d like to see each community get some money out of this, but I don’t think that’s the way it’s going to work,” he said. “There’s just not that amount of money out there.”
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