LEWISTON — Bettyann Sheats said she knows firsthand that federal stimulus money has helped the economy.
Lewiston Superintendent of Schools Leon Levesque, second from right, talks with Genevieve Lysen, right, from the Maine People's Alliance, Thursday morning during a bus tour of improvements to Lewiston and Auburn with funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Longtime Citilink bus driver Roger Tremaine gauges if he can make it around a corner Thursday while driving city officials and others around Lewiston and Auburn to sites improved with money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Kristen Walters of the St. Mary's Nutrition Center at 208 Bates St. in Lewiston speaks to the assembled tour on Thursday. The food pantry housed in the center is open five days a week and feed approximately 200 families per week.
Lewiston Mayor Larry Gilbert points to improvements made on Russell Street with money from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act during a bus tour of Lewiston and Auburn on Thursday.
Sheats received two lead abatement grants last year totaling $48,000 that helped her renovate two downtown Lewiston apartment buildings, making them more livable and increasing their value.
"We received $24,000 for the two buildings but we spent more than that, and we wouldn't have been able to start without the grants," she said. "That helped me, but it also helped the people I paid to do the work. And it helped the people that live in those buildings."
Sheats' building was one of several stops for Twin Cities municipal officials, members of Lewiston and Auburn's delegates to the state Legislature and local media designed to showcase how federal stimulus money was spent.
"What we're trying to say is that the stimulus worked and helped a lot more than people realize," said Genevieve Lysen, organizer for the Maine People's Alliance, which sponsored the tour.
The tour started at Lewiston's Oak Street Bus Station, visited St. Mary's Nutrition Center at 208 Bates St. and then drove past Sheats' buildings.
After that, the bus stopped at newly-rebuilt Russell Street in Lewiston, drove through Auburn and returned to the bus station, with the group discussing the $7.4 million UV water treatment plant at Lake Auburn.
Lewiston Public Works Director Dave Jones said the tour was supposed to visit the UV facility, but organizers realized Wednesday afternoon that the bus would not fit on the Lake Auburn access road.
All told, the tour visited projects or programs that received more than $11.1 million in federal stimulus.
Beginning in the spring 2009, Lewiston and Auburn received $72.2 million from the federal stimulus package, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Most of that money, $52.7 million, is coming to the cities through the state. About $32 million went to local hospitals to repay the state’s debt for treatment of patients covered under MaineCare since 2005.
Most of the rest of the money was directed to capital improvement projects.
"ARRA has provided critical help with infrastructure spending that has and will continue to create greatly needed jobs in this harsh economy," she said.
Projects highlighted Thursday:
— Transportation grants to purchase 13 transit buses statewide for a total of $390,000. Citylink, the Twin Cities bus system operated by the Lewiston Auburn Transit Committee, will receive three of those buses.
— St. Mary's Nutrition Center on Bates Street used a $23,000 grant to hire several youth workers.
— Sheats' Lisbon Street building, which was granted $8,000 per tenant to remove lead paint.
— Russell Street in Lewiston, which was rebuilt over the last two summers. The road project was paid with a $2 million state transportation grant.
— The city of Auburn's Perryville Combined sewer overflow project, which began last summer and wrapped up this spring. Work was paid with a $2.4 million grant.
— The Lake Auburn UV treatment facility, built with federal grants of $7.74 million.
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NOTHING IS FREE
Are you serious Wide?
You think it's ok to just run the presses and print worthless money?
What do you think this does to the worth of our dollar = it's not worth the paper it's printed on.
I wish I could sit back and believe the All Mighty Obama just has access to an unlimited amount of FREE money to pass around with no consequences. Unfortunately there are plenty of shmucks that are too ignorant to see the OBVIOUS . What happened to Common sense?
Do you run your household like this? If so, you are part of the problem with this country. The problems with the housing market are proof too many Americans have chosen to balance their sheets just like our government - thinking they can just borrow their way out of debt all the time. Robbing Peter to Pay Paul... doesn't work for long does it?
The millions that were so generously funneled through the hospitals into the hands of the state to pay for Medicaid payments is scary. Can't wait for that Obama Care! Whew! We won't have to worry about THAT being a problem again I guess..... that money will fall from the sky also!
I simply cannot believe so many people in this country have their heads so far up Obama's rear end! Hopefully the remaining 55% of my fellow taxpayers wake up and do something about this before we reach a ration of less than 50% paying taxes. We won't stand a chance then... and our country will fail to exists.
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I'm willing to dispense with your juvenile vulgarity to help you understand my point.
My point is that this money, falling magically from Washington's Yum-Yum tree, is borrowed money. It is money that Obama, Pelosi and Michaud didn't have saved. It is borrowed. With interest due.
About 45% of Americans pay no Federal Income tax. This ratio is wonderful if you are a tax taker because you have no skin in the game. Who cares what Federal spending and borrowing is! Let the poor working schlumps pay!
A little over 55% of Americans work these days. Correlates nicely with the 45% figure cited above, no?
So, the recap: The kids should have been on the caravan. They'll be paying. And a large percentage of them will pay nothing, if the Wide Stance Democrats remain in control.
I'm not sure the term "weekend" means anything to you, but have a nice one anyway!
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pay the youth workers next year?
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Can't wait to hear the teahdist reponse
to the fact that the stimulus helped the economy.
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.And i can't wait to see proof
And i can't wait to see proof that the stimulus helped the economy...because clearly as unemployment is growing, it did not help...other than bailing out those states controlled by democrats who could not get their own finances in order,, like maine and even that is only temporary bandaid on the problem.
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it should also be pointed out that several of these projects would have been completed regardless of the stimuls funds being issues. Russell Street was in the state budget for 2 prior years but originally was pushed back and then moved to the federal funds so the state could spend that money elsewhere.
And if you have no problem with that waste of state money elsewhere, going back to the stimulus and look at all the projects listed here - how many long term jobs were created....zero!
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.if actual longterm jobs were created
there would be fewer folks enrolled in Mainecare and therefore the State wouldn't owe so many freakin' millions of dollars to the hospitals. See how easy it is?
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Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.They Should Have Taken the School Kids Along...
..in a train of yellow school buses. Those students that will pay taxes when they grow up (now running at about 50%) will be paying the Red Chinese for this borrowed money.
A complete article would have discussed who actually paid for this "federal" money. Isn't it wonderful that President Obama sent us all this money? Yipee!
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American's paid the lowest amount of taxes in 50 years, and you somehow pull out your ass that we pay 50% taxes? Turn off the faux news and read some actual journalism for a change.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/taxes/2010-05-10-taxes_N.htm
Amid complaints about high taxes and calls for a
smaller government, Americans paid their lowest
level of taxes last year since Harry Truman's
presidency, a USA TODAY analysis of federal data
found.
Some conservative political movements such as the
"Tea Party" have criticized federal spending as being
out of control. While spending is up, taxes have
fallen to exceptionally low levels.
Federal, state and local income taxes consumed
9.2% of all personal income in 2009, the lowest rate
since 1950, the Bureau of Economic Analysis
reports. That rate is far below the historic average of
12% for the last half-century. The overall tax burden
hit bottom in December at 8.8.% of income before
rising slightly in the first three months of 2010.
"The idea that taxes are high right now is pretty
much nuts," says Michael Ettlinger, head of
economic policy at the liberal Center for American
Progress. The real problem is spending,counters
Adam Brandon of FreedomWorks, which organizes
Tea Party groups. "The money we borrow is going to
be paid back through taxation in the future," he
says.
Individual tax rates vary widely based on how much
a taxpayer earns, where the person lives and other
factors. On average, though, the tax rate paid by all
Americans — rich and poor, combined — has fallen
26% since the recession began in 2007. That means
a $3,400 annual tax savings for a household paying
the average national rate and earning the average
national household income of $102,000.
This tax drop has boosted consumer spending and
the economy, which grew at a 3.2% annual rate in
the first quarter. It also has contributed to the
federal debt growing to $8.4 trillion.
Taxes paid have fallen much faster than income in
this recession. Personal income fell 2% last year.
Taxes paid dropped 23%. The BEA classifies Social
Security taxes as insurance payments and excludes
them from the tax calculation.
Why the tax bite has eased:
• Stimulus law. One-third of last year's $862 billion
economic stimulus went for tax cuts. Biggest
reduction: The Making Work Pay tax credit reduced
income taxes $800 for married couples earning up
to $150,000.
• Progressive tax rates. Presidents Clinton and Bush
pushed through a series of tax changes — credits,
lower rates, higher exemptions — that slashed
income taxes for poor and middle-class families. A
drop in income now can trigger big tax breaks and
sharply lower rates, sometimes falling to zero.
• Sales tax. Consumers cut spending sharply in this
downturn, thereby paying less in sales taxes.
A Gallup Poll last month found that 48% thought
taxes were "too high" and 45% thought they were
"about right." Those saying taxes are "too high"
remain near a 50-year low.
The lower tax burden should last at least through
2010, says Roberton Williams of the Tax Policy
Center, a think tank in Washington, D.C. "Virtually all
the stimulus tax cuts expire at the end of the year,"
he says. "So the key decision is whether to extend
them into 2011."
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