Tom Finneran: What $18 Billion in Stimulus Money Could Do For MA

Friday, May 10, 2013

Tom Finneran, GoLocalWorcester MINDSETTER™

Do you know what 18 billion dollars could solve in Massachusetts? Photo: John Stephen Dwyer/Wikipedia.

Do you remember 2008 and 2009? If not, it’s probably because you blanked it out as one of the most unfortunate periods in your life. The economy tanked hideously in the fall of ’08, putting most of us into a state of high anxiety. We were worried about our jobs, our children’s futures, our homes, and our country. For many of us, those worries linger to this day. In fact, I know very few people who feel a current confidence in their future.

In January of 2009, President Obama took the oath of office for his first term, buoyed by the good sportsmanship of most Americans who really want their new Presidents to succeed. The President was also buoyed by the political fact that Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate. Thus he was in great political shape, poised to do some urgent things.

It seemed to me at the time, and, more importantly, it seemed to the President as well, that the economic fright felt by the American people required some serious attention. Thus was born the “stimulus” bill of 2009, designed to jump-start the economy and put Americans back to work. Four years later, here in the Spring of 2013, that effort warrants comment.

It was a gargantuan bill, just under 900 billion dollars. Yes, that’s billion, spelled with what should be a capital “B”. The sheer size of the stimulus truly dwarfed anything that had ever been offered as an economic boost in the past. And while there may have been one or two economists who suggested that Congress and the President go even higher, most economists seemed satisfied that the bill’s ambitions were about as high as a seriously debt-ridden nation could go. The bill was, in their eyes, appropriately aggressive and bold, and would, they thought, prove to be a boost to our economy.

I’m a grandfather not an economist and thus my thinking might lack sophistication. But I think the bill missed the mark. Do some math with me. President Bush ran up startling deficits over his eight years in office, putting a very heavy weight on younger Americans who will get the bill for his spendthrift ways. Annual deficits in the hundreds of billions of dollars a year is hardly “conservative” or “compassionately conservative” or anything but completely nuts. Republicans, and Democrats, should have denounced those practices. That they did not do so with any appreciable effect, suggests to me that they were all imbibing at the punch bowl. But all drinking parties must end, usually when the adults come home and send everyone off to bed.

So President Obama inherited both a mess of debt and a mess of economic misery, bringing me back to the almost 900 billion dollar stimulus. If my math is right, in a nation of roughly 300 million people, that 900 billion comes to 3,000 dollars per person. Now let’s “go local” on these numbers and bring it home to Massachusetts. Our six million residents, at 3,000 a head, would generate 18 billion dollars for local expenditure. Holy cow! That’s a lot of money. And we could have and should have gotten more bang for the buck for it. Here’s why:

America borrowed that money. It did not come from tax revenues generated by strong economic activity. And when anyone borrows money it must be paid back. Call me old-fashioned but if I’ve taken on debt, and 900 billion dollars is a lot of debt, I’d like to get something meaningful in return. Something like big meaningful chunks of infrastructure with ten, twenty, thirty, and even half-century lives. Think of roads, bridges, rail lines, reservoirs, water and sewer systems as economic assets which would serve us as well as our children, the ones who will actually be paying the bill.

Do you know what 18 billion dollars could solve in Massachusetts? Think of the most congested roads you know, the ones that eat into your time and drive you crazy each day. Or think of the woes of those who depend upon commuter rail reliability. Think of Route 2, of the mess of the juncture of Rte. 495, Rte. 9, and the Turnpike, of the nightmare of Rte. 93 at the juncture of Rte. 128, of Rte. 24 to the South Coast, and of the T’s debt and aged equipment. Think of GoLocal’s great piece on our most dangerous intersections. Think of new schools, replacing century-old relics of a bygone age.

What a missed opportunity. We might have handed off to our children not just the bill for the debt we took on, but a much improved Commonwealth, poised to take advantage of whatever economic recovery comes our way. Alas, it was not to be.

At my age, one of the most gladdening sights is the sight of construction cranes dotting the skyline. As the late Congressman Joe Moakley used to say, construction cranes were his favorite bird. He knew that they meant jobs, lots of them for lots of families. I really wish that those cranes had come to roost, here at home in Massachusetts.