New Jersey cities, suburbs, will soon see federal stimulus money

The Star-Ledger (NJ) ^ | Feb 28, 2009 | Claire Heininger

[ml/nj]

Newark will repair its high-rise public housing complexes for the elderly, where heat now seeps through the failing walls. Jersey City's housing authority will avoid laying off employees. Essex County will house and feed a growing population of the homeless.

Money from President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package began trickling into New Jersey this week, and local governments are now weighing how to use their first doses of cash.

In New Jersey, nearly $312 million will be spent on HUD programs to repair affordable housing, help the homeless, improve energy efficiency and other goals, according to the agency. The money is concentrated in the state's cities -- such as Newark, Paterson, Jersey City and Trenton -- but suburban counties like Morris and Somerset and small towns like Belmar also made the list. The city of Newark was also awarded $2.3 million for community development block grants and $3.5 million for homelessness prevention.

Jersey City's housing authority will also use its $7.8 million as "triage," including avoiding layoffs for 5 percent of its workforce, said Commissioner Raj Mukherji. Jersey City is also slated to get about $2.7 million for homelessness prevention and $1.7 million for community development.

But the economic turmoil -- and the stimulus money -- also bleeds into the suburbs, said Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr.

"We're getting more and more people (becoming) homeless," said DiVincenzo, whose county will collect $2.5 million for that cause. "It's all throughout the entire county, not just our urban centers."

[ml/nj]

The whole stimulus thing is nothing but a massive wealth transfer from the private sector to so-called government workers. My guess is that a huge percentage of the money to be spent on the "homeless" will actually wind up in the checking accounts of people on the public payroll. The clown, DiVincenzo, who talks about homelessness in the suburbs (where I live) must be smoking dope.

Today on the news, there was a story about NY's Gov. Paterson rescinding the cuts he said he was going to make on public school expenditures because of stimulus money NY was receiving. So no public employee school teacher in NY will lose his of her job after all. All those unemployed we are hearing about on the radio are apparently only people who weren't working for one government agency or another. When they figure this out, it might not be safe to be a government employee.

ML/NJ

[xcamel]

going into full on spending-orgasm mode there too, eh?

[blackminorca]

Let’s call a spade a spade - all these towns and cities are Democrat strongholds, largely low income, and non-white.

This is racism pure and simple.

[JeanLM]

I live in NJ but in the Western suburbs. The only homeless we have are the people they put into COAH housing (affordable). They were most of the foreclosures too.

Now the towns and townships own the COAH houses because of unpaid taxes, and can’t sell them to anyone but qualified low income buyers who will be getting support now I suppose to move back in.

What a crazy deal. The Star Ledger is the leading liberal paper in NJ. The Courier News is worse, so I don’t read either.

[SampleMan]

Isn’t the sky just going to part and rain dollars?

[jwparkerjr]

And it’s all being done with borrowed money, or worse still money that will be printed just for the occasion.

And sadly, most of the projects will never accomplish what was intended. Government does not have the ability to do anything and do it both right and economically.

My favorite example is a couple of projects here in Tampa several years ago. They were building a multi-screen movie complex on corner of a busy street and a new fire station right across the street. People were eating popcorn and enjoying movies TWO YEARS before the first alarm was answered from the new station. And the two projects were worlds apart in size and complexity. Even so the profit-driven movie complex was finished two years before the fire station. Then someone realized there were plans on the board to widen the busy street and they had to tear down the fire station and build a new one!

All this stimulus pork will end up in the same place all pork does. In the pockets of those who slop at the public trough. A mere pittance will make it down to those who are the stated targets of the pork, maybe, but most of it will just line the pockets of those who make their living by helping the poor.

[library user]

New Jersey cities, suburbs, will soon see federal stimulus TAXPAYER money.

There - fixed it.

[tsomer]

I read last week that Office Depot’s stock was dropping.

Might be a good time to buy in.

They’ll be one of the biggest suppliers for the recipients.

Gov. bureaucracy will need paper for reports, pens and pads and post-its for meetings, folders for files, paper clips, styrofoam coffee cups, filters, chairs.

We’re building the shining city on the hill, out of paper.

[Don Corleone]

The old Soviet Russia had programs like these. They were ALL total failures. Especially the housing projects with community toilets, bare bulb light fixtures and peeling plaster walls. Ask anyone who lived there at the time...5 and 6 to a room. As for the roads..few had cars and you couldn’t leave town without a pass anyway.

[bill1952]