A Stimulus Scorecard

A few days ago, Bud Fitch, the state’s stimulus tsar, sat down and gave the governor and executive council a status report on the stimulus.

FITCH: This is the stuff that we really know for certain, that we have concrete data that we can back up.

The basic numbers, according to Fitch, are these. The stimulus has provided about 156 million dollars for contracts and extra money in peoples’ unemployment checks. It’s responsible for 62 jobs but that only counts transportation work; other projects haven’t reported back yet.

Fitch said he wanted to be as conservative as possible in his update. He didn’t include money the state knows it will get but that still needs final approval from Washington.

FITCH: If you think about water flowing from a stream down into a lake, this is measuring at the mouth of the lake. This is the stuff that is actually there, and contributing to the economy in use.

SFX jackhammers

To get an idea of how quickly this money actually gets into the economy, I visited a stimulus project on Interstate 89 near New London. Pike Industries won this contract. Regional Coordinator Tom Rugg takes me to a bridge where three men carve at the surface with jackhammers.

RUGG: They’re taking the concrete down to good solid base then we’ll be pouring concrete back in to fill in the voids.//How many bridges are you working on in this stretch of the project?// There’s nine bridges to be repaired. Currently we have three opened up.

This project, which involves much more than bridge repair, costs 6.2 million dollars. So far, Pike has spent 300 thousand of that, or about 5%. Even with the emphasis on ready-to-go projects, there’s a practical limit, to use Bud Fitch’s metaphor, on how quickly the water streaming from Washington moves into the middle of the economic lake.

Try not to be shocked, but sometimes the federal government slows down the process. The state got 23 million dollars to make the homes of lower income families more energy efficient. But no actual work has been done because of a dispute in Washington over the rules for how much to pay contractors.

But neither bridges nor houses are where the stimulus has already had the greatest impact. To see the biggest difference, you have look at a balance sheet -- the state’s balance sheet. It is 45 million dollars healthier than it would have been.

By far the single largest bolt of cash the state has and will continue to get from Washington is in the Medicaid program. As more people fall into poverty, the rolls have swelled – up 8% from last July. Without the stimulus, the state would have needed to raise more money, cut back on services or cut payments to doctors and clinics.

Health and Human Services Commissioner Nick Toumpas calls the federal money a lifeline, although a temporary one.

TOUMPAS: It now gives us the time to continue to provide services but now start looking toward the future in terms of what are we going to do when the program is over. Because this programs goes until Dec. 31st of 2010. What happens after Dec. 31st of 2010?

At the end of the day, not counting millions of dollars in tax breaks for homebuyers and businesses, the stimulus is expected to bring about 750 million dollars to the state. Of that, more than half helps balance the state budget. It doesn’t solve the state’s fiscal troubles, but it eases the pressure considerably and puts off the time when voters and lawmakers will need to make harder choices.

For NHPR News, I’m Jon Greenberg.