(Host) State officials say they expect millions of dollars to flow into Vermont in the coming weeks as part of the second phase of the federal stimulus plan.
But Economic Recovery director Tom Evslin says he’s disappointed that the Obama Administration has been slow to establish rules for key broadband and energy grant projects.
VPRs Bob Kinzel reports.
(Kinzel) The federal stimulus money is divided into two categories. The first is known as formula funds – every state gets this money based on its population. Vermont is set to receive $720 million over the next two years in these funds.
The second category allocates money based on a competitive grant process. Vermont hopes to receive an additional $200 million in special broadband, energy, e- health and e – education grants.
The new round of stimulus money is formula driven – it’s meant to be used to expand health centers, launch a new round of transportation projects, upgrade VA Medical centers, and make improvements in the national park system.
Tom Evslin is the head of Vermont’s Economic Recovery office. He says the flow of the stimulus money is definitely boosting employment in the state:
(Evslin) "We know that there are more highway projects going on than there would have been without the stimulus money. We know there are more water projects. We know there are community health centers being funded."
(Kinzel) Evslin says Vermont is now ready to apply for its top priority grant projects, but he says the federal rules for these grants haven’t been finalized:
(Evslin) "We were ready by the middle of May – both in the energy field and the broadband field – to request grants even though we had to do a lot of guessing about what the criteria would be. But they’re not ready to take the applications and not nearly ready to give the money out and that’s a real disappointment."
(Kinzel) And Evslin says the lack of federal action could cost Vermont some new jobs:
(Evslin) "A stimulus delayed is a depressant. There are actually projects in both telecom and energy that would have gone ahead this summer…so there’s work that would have been done, jobs that would have been created or retained, that aren’t because the stimulus funds are delayed longer than I think they should have been."
(Kinzel) Vermont’s congressional delegation is trying to break this regulatory logjam.
They’ve written a joint letter to federal regulators urging them to streamline the grant process so that these projects can be started during the 2009 construction season.
For VPR News I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.