Government is going to save us

When the U.S. Conference of Mayors released its wish list of “ready-to-go” projects on Dec. 19, it included requests from 641 cities around the country. The total cost of the projects on the “ready-to-go” list is . . . a little more than $96.6 billion for 15,221 projects. These projects will create 1.2 million jobs for 2009 and 2010 . . . so we are led to believe.
That’s a lot of money. But, it is far less than the United States government has already handed out to Wall Street and only about three times more than it intends to hand out to the automobile industry. The projects range in nature from museums to swings for parks to various green energy projects. Some are interesting. Some are just idiotic.
How is the money to be obtained? Why, from your pockets and mine. President-elect Barack Obama has intentions of handing out $775 billion to $1 trillion of your money to help revive the economy of our country. He along with our senate and congressional leaders insist that only government can save our country from further economic meltdown. Now, that is a very scary thought – only the government can save us from economic ruin?
Ah, who the heck got us in this in this mess to start with? I do not care which political party you are affiliated with, they are both at fault. The politicians in Washington, D.C., were not watching out for us – the very people they serve.
But now, let’s get back to the “ready-to-go” project wish list prepared by the mayors from across this great nation. There were 10 Alabama cities that presented requests for the list – Birmingham, Mobile, Huntsville, Decatur, Florence, Auburn, Gadsden, Tuscaloosa, Bessemer and Edwardsville. Mobile asked for the most money for projects at $1.1 billion. Birmingham requested $69 million that will create 1,885 jobs. Huntsville asked for $559 million that will create 26,204 jobs. Auburn asked for $11.1 million that will create 238 new jobs. Tuscaloosa’s request amounts to $17.5 million and will yield 290 new jobs. Florence wants $4.5 million to create 50 jobs. Decatur has asked for $98 million that will create 1,060 jobs. Gadsden’s request is $67.7 million that will create 2,251 jobs. Bessemer wants $427.4 million that will create 2,913 jobs. And Edwardsville listed projects worth $375 million that would have created 4,677 jobs.
I bet most of you have never heard of Edwardsville. It’s located along the eastern border of Alabama between Anniston and Atlanta. Most of the money the city – and I use the word loosely – of 194 people wanted the bulk of the money for energy projects and a big chunk for vineyards, a railroad renovation and street lights . . . lots of street lights. That part of the city’s request – the street lights – is what sent a lot of negative comments to the small community. Because of the many negative comments, and negative media reports, the city withdrew its requests from the project list. That was probably a smart move on the city’s part, but that is not to say that many of the projects were not worthwhile. I commend the small community of progressive thinkers for setting forth their ideas.
What Edwardsville did may be compared to someone firing a shotgun at a target, maybe one of the pellets would hit something. They threw out a bold plan for the future and then pulled it back. I commend the city for at least being a part of the plan.
Phenix City was not among those presenting a list of projects in the report – neither was Columbus. With the future impact of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) on our communities, we can certainly come up with some project to be included in the list. If I had been asked to suggest a project or two for the plan, I would have wanted to include two new elementary schools for our school system. That is the type of project President-elect Obama wants to see. I’m sure he would have jumped on board with our project and handed us the money to build right now - immediately.
That would be a great thing, a great project, for our community. But, I have to ask, after the construction of the two schools, how do we fund the operation of those two facilities? Alabama is under proration that could be increased to 17.9 percent by Gov. Bob Riley. We are being forced to cut our current budgets for the schools we already have in place. Where is the money going to come from to operate two new schools?
Oh, I forgot. Praise be, the government is going to save us.