Surprise! Georgia’s transportation stimulus spending better than other states
July 1, 2009 at 9:03 am by Thomas Wheatley in NewsGeorgia roadbuilders — well, Marietta, Ga.-based C.W. Matthews, in particular — had something to smile about yesterday. Gov. Sonny Perdue, flanked by newly elected Georgia Department of Transportation Commissioner Vance Smith and U.S. Deputy Transportation Secretary John D. Porcari, made the smoggy skies rain with Obamabucks on Tuesday as he kicked off the Peach State’s first foray into stimulus spending.
On Tuesday state and federal transportation officials gathered in Hapeville to celebrate the first stimulus-funded road project to go under construction in metro Atlanta, a repaving expected to pump $940,841 into the Georgia economy.
The project is to pave 4.2 miles of Ga. Hwy. 3, a commercial corridor in Clayton and Fulton counties near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Contractors said work is scheduled to begin Monday night.
C.W. Matthews scored the project because it is God.
Now, you can argue about the stimulus all day long. Hard truth though is that it’s here, so you best spend it wisely. And a new study by self-explanatory think tank Smart Growth America and its partners says, whoa, Georgia’s made some good choices in how it spends the cash.
The rest of the country? Meh.
The report, titled “120 Days,” analyzes how each state has allocated the total $26.6 billion made available by the Barack Obama administration. (You can download the full report here, fellow fact-loving deviant wonks.)
From Geoff Anderson, president of Washington, D.C.-based Smart Growth America:
“That nationally nearly two-thirds of STP funding has gone to repairing existing roads and bridges is encouraging…But given our huge road and bridge repair backlog and inadequate public transportation system, $6.6 billion for new highway capacity just doesn’t make sense. It’s like adding a new wing to your house when the roof is falling in.”
“In aggregate, the states spent virtually none of their flexible money on these choices, losing the opportunity to shield Americans from future gas price spikes and limiting their freedom to choose how they get around. In fact, we’re seeing the effects of cuts in public transportation right now, and it’s often hurting low income and minority populations – the people who most rely on this transportation to get to work, be self-sufficient, and participate in the economy.”
Anderson also says Georgia should have shifted $156.5 million dollars programmed for new construction to repair. That move alone, he says, would’ve produced approximately 340 more jobs in Georgia, jobs that could’ve been filled much quicker.
Nonetheless, here’s a breakdown of how funds were spent.
Granted, there’s a lot of loot being dedicated toward paving and building roads. Jim Durrett of Atlanta-based Livable Communities Coalition, one of the Smart Growth America’s partners in the report, noticed that as well.
“In making the decisions on how Georgia spends the remainder of its transportation stimulus dollars, we hope that preference will be given to improvements to streets that promote walkability and connectivity in towns and job centers and in areas with transit stops, as well as bridge and road repair,” Durrett said in a press release. “Decisions to add road capacity at a time when we are struggling to maintain the transportation system we already have need to be carefully examined.”
He’s right of course. I’ve personally seen some estimates of transportation spending in the metro region that list road maintenance as sucking up nearly half (maybe more) of all transportation funding. That means we’re building more roads we’ll have to maintain — and running out of money to pay for that maintenance. You can go to one end of the extreme and say privatize the roads and let someone else worry about it, or you can start building or bolstering transit systems that’ll move more people more efficiently. The stimulus bucks are keeping MARTA moving for the time being, but remember: that’s a one-time shuffling of funds.
But we’re veering off topic. So far so good. But let’s try and make some decisions that’ll cost less to maintain when the money from D.C. stops pouring into Georgia.
July 1st, 2009 at 11:22 am
No surprise here with CW Matthews. Georgia (as well as the City of Atlanta) are under the sway of an amazingly few power brokers and monied, special interests. Maybe it has always been that way, but nowadays people seem to like it when their power and influence is apparent to everyone (even when the dealings seem soemwhat shady).