Is the Mahoning Valley ready to grab public works dollars?
The current national and global economic crises are forcing Congress and the White House to explore ways of triggering a recovery. There has been vocal public debate over the $700 billion bailout of the nation’s financial institutions, and this week Democrats on Capitol Hill are trying to forge a financial plan that would give the Big Three auto makers some breathing room.
One idea that has not received a great deal of attention, but that is being touted by President-elect Barack Obama’s advisers, is a massive public works program that would be launched shortly after Obama is sworn in Jan. 20.
Over the weekend, it was suggested that the federal government would spend at least $200 billion, and as much as $300 billion, to rebuild the nation’s roads and bridges and address other infrastructure needs, such as the construction of sewer and water lines.
Providing the impetus for this public works initiative is Wall Street, which has been reeling from the decline of the stock market. While financial institutions aren’t usually supportive of this kind of government spending because of the time it takes to develop such a massive program and get the money flowing to the states, there was talk that 18 million Americans could be put to work immediately given the projects that are already on the drawing board.
That brings us to the Mahoning Valley — and our belief that it, more than any other region in the state, should be a primary recipient of public works dollars.
Steel industry collapse
Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties still have not fully recovered economically from the collapse of the steel industry 30 years ago. The federal and state governments bear some blame for failing to development an aggressive industrial recovery program.
The loss of thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs resulted in the contraction of the tax base, which has meant a lack of money for infrastructure improvements. Thus, roads and bridges and other projects, including the demolition of vacant structures in the cities of Youngstown and Warren, have been put on the back burner.
While we are well aware that the expenditure of $200 billion to $300 billion by the federal government will add to the budget deficit (the editorial Monday expressed our deep concern about Washington’s spending ways), we are not willing to forego this region’s sharing of the dollars if President Obama and the Democratic controlled Congress launch the public works initiative.
We should not have a repeat of what occurred when the state’s Clean Ohio program was launched several years ago.
This newspaper was the first in the state to endorse the program because of the money available for the restoration of brownfield sites. However, an analysis of how dollars were distributed throughout Ohio found the Valley among the bottom feeders.
Area legislators concluded that local communities were lax in applying for the Clean Ohio money.
Fortunately, that has changed and dollars are beginning to flow into the region.
A public works program, designed to put people to work, is another opportunity for the tri-county area that must not be lost.