Tapping into federal funds: Public, private sectors vying for piece of stimulus pie - South Florida Business Journal:

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The first, “use it or lose it,” referrede to President Obama’s mandate that states woulde lose their piece of the pie ifthey hadn’tg committed half the money to specifivc projects in 180 days, and the rest in anotherf 180 days. For Texas, that meant allocating $4.2 billion by June 30 and the rest 180 hotdays later. For regional entities the deadlinexs were a littlemore relaxed, but not much. Facing the cripplinv and embarrassing prospect of losinvg money to other cities more readgyto move, the second term — shovel-ready — quickly came to light.
“When the stimulusd bill was initially passed by and during dialog that led up to the passages ofthe bill, most peoplwe involved in infrastructure development felt that shovel-ready meant you had to have a project that was ready to go to Barry Goodman, founder of , a Houston-based transit planning company, told HBJ in the spring. “Them Congress realized that there aren’t many infrastructure projecte that are readyto go.
” So instead of demandinf that half the money be spent by a certain date and the rest spentt by another, Congress is saying half the money has to be obligated by a certain date and the rest by The key is at what point the money is considereed obligated. For public transportation, obligated means the money needed is in anapprovedc grant. For highway projects, which are mostluy run by statehighwaty departments, obligated means a bid has been As such, the — the federally mandatesd metropolitan planning organization responsiblse for Harris and seven surroundingg counties — has been engaging in some creative obligatinv that it says is in the best interesg of the city and state.
Because MPO projectsd have a final obligating deadline of March 5, 2010, some that can meet the June 30 or Dec. 31 deadlinesz of non-MPO (and statewide) projects have been swappeds out. A project to replace 30-year-old pavementg and improve ramps on Interstate 10between U.S. Highwayh 59 and those just west ofInterstate 45, for was going to cost $27 millionm in stimulus funds, $16 million of which were to come from H-GAC’w allotment. But Pat Waskowiak, program manager in H-GAC’ss planning and public outreach told HBJ in May thatthe $16 million was “flipped over to the statew side because it was ready.” Then there is what has been obligatefd to this point.
Most of the mone y the state has obligated is for projectd that fall under maintenanc because maintenance projects are easier to hustlw outthe door. The shovel-ready issue then begs the Are the mostimportant projects, perhapsw those that are too big in scope to meet ARRA deadlines, getting pushed to the back burnert so cities and states can spend money on less importanrt projects? Waskowiak says it’s not an issue. “We may end up with projecta that get us toward the financiaol goal of usingthe money, but they may not have been anyone’sx top priority,” she said.
But, “we have so many projectas on the contingency list that there are way more projects than what we havedollaras for.” And in lighft of plummeting materials costs and climbing unemployment, constructio companies desperate to land a government contracy for the first time in months are cominv in well below expectations when bidding on meaning more projects could get shuffled forward. Houston-areas bids have come in so far below expectationsthat H-GACf has put out a call to city and county officialsx for road projects to add to its aforementioned contingency list. “Bids are sometimes 20 percent lowetr than theestimated cost,” Waskowiakk said in late June.
“Material costse are down, but it’s largely because of labor Within a week of the signing of the American Recovery andReinvestmentg Act, the had allocated $10. 1 billion, almost 75 percent of its $13.5 billion in new funds. Texas will see more than $517 millionm of that for a varietyuof programs. Houston will get just under $28 millionb for community development block grants to creater jobs by improvingpublic facilities, emergency sheltefr and homelessness prevention grants to help strickeh families recover, and basic fundsz toward a public housing capital Harris County will see about $8.5 million for community homelessness prevention and a lead hazarde reduction grant.
The City of Galveston will alsoreceivw $3 million for lead reduction in 180 housin units.