ACHD
Boise Stimulus Projects Identified
March 13, 2009 
The Team Dave folks at Mayor Bieter’s office are keeping a scorecard of funded projects from the feds.
Here is the current list:
Transportation
36th Street Bike and Pedestrian Bridge: $550,000
Northeast Downtown Sidewalks: $519,000
Ada County Highway District ADA Sidewalks: $500,000
Ada County Highway District Thin Lift Overlays: $4 million
Ada County Highway District Federal Overlays: $3.4 million
Vista Avenue Interchange: $43.4 million
Transit
Valley Regional Transit ADA Bus Stops: $2.6 million
TOTAL
$54.969 million
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Comments & Discussion
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© 2009 Boise Guardian. 
Mar 13, 2009, 9:24 am
How many of these contracts will go to out of State workers. Its that important?
Mar 13, 2009, 2:26 pm
Here’s my problem with the “Stimulus” Packages…
If all of that money were to be redirected to citizens DIRECTLY, every man, woman, and child in Boise would have roughly $271.00 just from the city’s share.
Mar 13, 2009, 6:22 pm
While I woud love to get a check for 271 dollars for me and my family, it wouldnt change my life.
For the people who get jobs, however menial, to do this work, a Job is life sustaiing and life changing.
Just my thoughts
Mar 13, 2009, 7:03 pm
“Davis Bacon” [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis-Bacon_Act ] insures that most – if not all – the projects chosen for stimulus money will be stimulating only to a very fortunate few.
Mar 14, 2009, 8:25 am
Being as the ‘stimulus money’ is actually coming from the Chinese government. What happens when we inevitably get foreclosed on because we cannot repay it?
The United States total financial liabilities; explicit debts and unfunded obligations exceed $65 trillion. That’s five times as large as our national GDP. That is the hole we are now in. The last thing we need is to send down more shovels to keep digging it deeper.
I for one do not want to have to learn to speak Chinese and be under Red China’s iron fisted rule.
Mar 14, 2009, 3:00 pm
Nemo, how many new jobs are really going to be created from these projects? 5, 10, maybe 20? Some local businesses may get a small boost in sales (asphalt, cement, etc) but that’s about it.
Is it worth 54 million dollars?
I wholly disagree with any of the stimulus packages but if they’re going to spend, give it to the people. A family of four with a dislocated worker would really love $1,000 right now.
Mar 14, 2009, 5:45 pm
Tom Anderson is right, but at the same time, who cares. We have spent $1 Trillion, (That is $1 followed by 12 zeros!) in Iraq and we didn’t even include it in the budget.
That amounts to about $35,000 for every man woman and child in Iraq, a country whose dictator was once our friend. A country that had no al quaida, until we got there, and had no WMD.
Now, we talk about spending the same amount of money total, (but only about $3,000 per person) to help ourselves out of a jam, and everyone is suddenly cost conscious.
I don’t know what the problem is, but it is pretty clear that its not the money.
Mar 15, 2009, 8:27 am
Borrowing more money when you are broke is not the answer. The answer is to live like a homeless person (which is what America as a country is at the moment) until you can rebuild your finances.
We cannot spend our way to wealth. That is a false choice, peddled by politicians pandering to a terrified people. We want to believe there is a ‘solution’ that will allow us to keep our luxurious lifestyles, but there is not.
I agree about Iraq, and would pull our troops not only out of Iraq, but all of our over 700 foreign military bases all over the world.
America is an overextended empire. We are in the same perilous position right now that 26 previous empires have been in as they fell into collapse.
It is time to pull in our horns, lower our standard of living, and create a local food system for the time very soon when the energy intensive corporate food system fails.
Mar 15, 2009, 4:33 pm
I agree with Tom. Even as I cronicle Idaho’s military involvement with past wars, I wonder why we didn’t learn from the British about empire building.
Mar 18, 2009, 7:30 pm
If we must take stimulus money, which I am still a little wary of, then the projects the City has listed are fine with me.
As an avid greenbelt user I would be thrilled to have the 36th street footbridge built sooner than later and the Vista interchange re-do is really needed.
Apr 24, 2009, 2:07 pm
If any of you want to find out how much the State of Idaho really has in funds for the maintenance of and building our roads and bridges, consider calling the Idaho State Controller Office and asking for your own, already paid for 2008 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report @ 332-8814.
You can also have a more thorough look on their website. There in you will find BILLIONS in surplus reserves and on pg 4, Donna Jones states that there is $1.3 BILLION available for citizen obligations.
Why not access those funds, which would offset tax deficiency instead of raising taxes during these “rainy days.”