Results tagged “stimulus”

An in-depth look into stimulus money (or the lack thereof) coming into Los Angeles reveals that the nation's 2nd biggest city is losing out. For example, the graph to the right shows transportation and infrastructure funding via grants from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). New York City is the big win and San Diego is slightly edging out Los Angeles.

Last week, after a few rallies throughout the state, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger handed in a grant to the feds, asking for $4.8 billion in stimulus money for California's high speed rail project, which would take passengers from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a few hours. Today, that grant drew support from both of California's U.S. Senators and 21 other congressional leaders, including many from Los Angeeles.

Last week the California High-Speed Rail Authority voted to submit a grant application to the federal government, asking for $4.8 billion in stimulus money for a high speed rail line that would connect Los Angeles and San Francisco with a few hours trip. On Friday, that application will be submitted after few rallies across the state, including one in Los Angeles.

With the feds yearning to give away $8 billion in Recovery Act money to states for high-speed train development, California officials today prepared to submit an application asking for more than half of that.

But don't get too excited, the money from the feds going to the transit line is not for extending it northbound towards Burbank airport or anything close to that. Today's announcement from is about reducing energy consumption. The White Explains in a press release:

It probably wasn't very hard for former City Controller Laura Chick to leave her Los Angeles post early to join Schwarzenegger as his Inspector General overseeing how stimulus money was being spent in California. In Los Angeles, she was a bulldog over anything wasteful.

The Foothill Transit agency approved $259,141 of federal transit money for two automated wheel polishers from Australia, the Pasadena Star News found. Watchdogs are obviously not happy, but the agency said no U.S. companies placed a bid, that the polishers will "dramatically" reduce time spent on prepping buses, therefore streamlining operations, and $72,000 a year will be spent on polisher supplies from the U.S. "If we were to look at the highest-priorities for FTA, I don't know that this would fit," said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, to the paper. Foothill said most of the money they received went towards expanding programs.

Who knew our little freeway that could was the largest and most stimulated project in all of the state. Ripped from a White House press release about California meeting Recovery Act goals ahead of schedule: "As of today, California’s largest ARRA-funded project is the I-405 in Los Angeles County that will be widened and include several interchange upgrades along a 10-mile stretch of HOV lanes. This project is located in an economically distressed area and relies on $190 million in ARRA funding to go toward the total cost of $739 million for the project." The only 10-mile 405 freeway HOV widening project listed on Metro's website is located in the "economically distressed" areas between the 10 Freeway and Ventura Blvd... you know, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Brentwood, Westwood Village, etc. Still, once completed, it should be happier days for many.

The U.S. Department of Transportation announced that $400 million from the economic recovery package is headed to make capital investments in transit throughout California. It's not going to build us the Subway to the Sea or anything sexy like that, but is headed to more functional improvements, such as seen in the above photo:

Speaking from South LA today, Vice President Joe Biden announced that affordable-housing development Esperanza Community Housing Corporation will receive $875,000 for the removal of toxic paint from 225 homes.

The Obama Administration certainly likes Los Angeles a lot more than the Bush one. President Barack Obama has already done a Los Angeles visit, now it's his counterpart's turn. Vice President Joe Biden will be in town tomorrow to highlight the progress of the Recovery Act, according to the White House today. He'll be touring the Esperanza Community Housing Corporation in South LA with Mayor Villaraigosa, Rep. Xavier Becerra and Ron Simms of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Then he and others will discuss with the press how stimulus funds are supporting HUD's "programs to eliminate dangerous lead-based paint from low-income homes and protect young children from lead poisoning."

$20.3 million of stimulus money from the federal government will go towards Hire LA, the city's program to place 16- to 24-year-olds in summer and permanent full time jobs around the city. “Hire LA will create over 16,000 jobs for Los Angeles youth and set them on-course toward a steady paycheck and a better life,” Mayor Villaraigosa said in a statement. “Today, Los Angeles becomes the first city in the nation to create jobs for young people using federal stimulus dollars dedicated towards youth employment.” In all, 7,388 positions will come from stimulus money. The remaining 8,500 positions will be funded through the annual programs from the city, school and community college district and private sector.

Did you like Heidi and Spencer’s Q&A yesterday? Then tonight’s your night because the Paley Fest brings the cast of The Hills to the Cinerama Dome at 7 pm tonight. Though Spence isn’t on the bill, Heidi, Lauren Conrad, Audrina Patridge, Whitney Port, Brody Jenner and Lo Bosworth are. And you never know what may happen with this crew anyway. Tickets are $45-$60. If you have a question for them, post it here.

It was as close to a split as a panel of 7 can get: In a 4-3 vote, the LAUSD Board of Education voted late yesterday afternoon to approve layoffs that will affect thousands of teachers and other district staff.

LA City Council's new ad hoc Committee on Economic Recovery and Reinvestment met last week for the first time carefully deciding how stimulus will be handled. "At that meeting, we established a set of 9 guiding priorities by which we intend not only to fulfill the president’s vision for efficient allocation of the stimulus funds, but also to make Los Angeles the most accountable, transparent, and effective city in moving economic recovery programs forward," Council President Eric Garcetti wrote on his personal blog on his campaign website. With this transparency, he believes the city will get up to $1 billion.

Watch out, Sacramento and local governments statewide! City Controller Laura Chick announced today she is leaving her Los Angeles post a few months early to become the "first-in-the-nation" Inspector General to oversee the use of federal economic stimulus funds given to the state and local municipalities. "I am coming to Sacramento to deter, detect and disclose any waste, fraud and abuse of these precious taxpayer dollars," she said in a prepared statement. She begins her new $175,000-a-year job on April 27th. Between then and July 1st when Controller-Elect Wendy Greuel takes office, Chick's top deputy, Rushmore Cervantes, will assume duties.

This morning the state announced higher income taxes and more cuts in programs because stimulus money earmarked for the state budget was not enough. Basically, last month's budget plan said if the state doesn't receive at least $10 billion from the feds, more taxes and cuts were going to happen. Well, it happened, California got $8.17 billion.

Federal stimulus funds are bound for Santa Monica, where their Big Blue Bus has plans for the $12.8 million, according to Yahoo!Business. The funds come with the stipulation they be "used for capital expenditures and not for operating costs or service enhancements."

"I would suggest the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them if they'd follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, I'm sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide." That was Sen. Charles Grassley yesterday on AIG's $165 million in bonuses after receiving federal bailout. Locally, protests have been taking place outside AIG's office in downtown. Another one is scheduled for 4 p.m. this afternoon, reports blogdowntown.

Of the $33 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the U.S Department of Agriculture's wildfire protection efforts, California is only slated for $1.5 million so far and that's for Northern California. "The project work will include fuel reduction work near communities, Forest Service recreation facilities, and access routes and will also maintain facilities to reduce deferred maintenance while making crews available for fires suppression when needed." This comes as the state runs short of funds to pay for firefighters. More money is expected from the stimulus via other routes, but Governor Schwarzenegger has been pushing a yet-to-be approved 2.8 percent surcharge on property insurance. In 2008, the state experienced over 2,000 wildfires.

KCET's SoCal Connected blogger Val Zavala shared this photo a couple of days ago, which spotlights a bizarre sight in our city. Says Zavala, of the mysterious floating telephone pole: "L.A. has some strange sights. But this one is a winner. I took this photograph in Silverlake on March 10th. My caption is attached, but I invite you all to add your own. (No, I did NOT photoshop it.)." The caption? A note to the man in Washington DC who is handing out money to help cities stay, er, afloat: "Dear Mr. President, We've got a little infrastructure problem here. Would you mind throwing a little stimulus money our way?" Anyone know what the deal with the pole is?

With the $215 million in federal stimulus funds Metro received (it could go up to $315) for transportation projects, they are giving cities a minimum of $500,000. But the Pasadena Star News found that smaller cities were taking that money and trading it for as low as 62-cents to the dollar for money they could use on anything they wanted (Example, one city would trade their $500,000 earmarked for shovel ready transit projects with another city for $315,000 in cash that they could use for anything they wanted).

Some cities say they don't have shovel ready transit projects and would rather "replenish their general funds," Alfred Lee at the Pasadena Star News has found. But in order to get the money, they have to sell $500,000 allocated to them by Metro to another city. Here's what's happening:

Happy Mardi Gras, everyone! Laissez les bons temps rouler...

"The American people are watching," Obama told a gathering of mayors at the White House today, saying he would call them out if the public's money went to waste.

Finally, the state senate and assembly came to a compromise and passed the much needed budget. "Our work is not over," tweeted Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. "We were in a crisis. But crisis provides opportunity for real reforms for California."

Although there is no specific mention of the high speed train between the Los Angeles area and Las Vegas, Republicans are crying foul.

"Let's not forget the local perspective when talking national policies," LA City Council President Eric Garcetti said last night in a telephone press conference about the federal stimulus package going through Washington D.C. right now. "The economic recovery isn't going to happen in Washington, it's going to happen on our streets."

The $819 billion stimulus package being worked on right now by congress could help California up and down the state. Projected to have $42 billion deficit later this year, the money wouldn't go to state coffers to fix the budget, but rather to counties and cities for ready-to-go infrastructure projects. For example, $4 billion could go to transportation projects alone. But the New York Times warns that California will be an indicator if this stimulus will be successful or not in other states: "There are political hazards, too. Not only is California needy, with high unemployment, the most foreclosures in the country and tax revenues so depressed that it will begin furloughing state workers, it is also politically unruly."