Corey Stewart Scoffs at Stimulus Money

Stimulus money is beginning to arrive in Prince William County thanks to the efforts of Congressman Gerald Connolly. So far, $1.1 million dollars has been secured for the Greater Prince William Community Health center. $19.1 million has also been designated for Prince William County Schools. $530,000 in additional law enforcement funding is also slated to come our way.

Supervisor Frank Principi elaborated that the center treated 4,000 patients in 2008, 75% of whom were uninsured. This year, if trends continue, the clinic will see 7,000 patients. Principi is executive director of the clinic.

Officials in Prince William County have a long laundry list of needs drawn up to help offset the economic crunch which threatens to cripple the county. County legislative affairs director Dana Fenton indicated that his office has a list of priorities totaling $371 million. This wish list contains requests for money for law enforcement, roads, and neighborhoods impacted by foreclosure issues, to name a few projects that will go unfunded without stimulus money.

Chairman of the BOS, Corey Steward, has dismissed the incoming money according to the Washington Post:

But Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey A. Stewart (R-At Large) said he wasn’t impressed, dismissing the stimulus money allocated so far as “a drop in the bucket.” Residents will be shortchanged if Connolly, who entered Congress two months ago, doesn’t secure at least $50 million for county schools, he said.

“Our county is the ninth wealthiest in the country and pays a lot of income tax,” Stewart said. “This is going to be a test as to how much pull Gerry Connolly has inside his own party.”

Stewart didn’t spare Connolly criticism for the allocation to Principi’s health center, either. “It looks suspicious that his friend and ally has been given $1.1 million in federal money to help pay his salary,” he said.

But Connolly said Stewart “can’t have it both ways.” His office provided a copy of a Feb. 9 letter from Stewart thanking Connolly for working to relieve traffic congestion through stimulus funding.

“I think Mr. Stewart’s time would be better spent writing my Republican colleagues and urging them to vote for a stimulus bill he now wants me to bring home the bacon from,” Connolly said. The former Fairfax County chairman was the only Prince William representative to vote for the stimulus, as Reps. Frank R. Wolf, Robert J. Wittman and every other House Republican opposed it.

A “drop in the bucket?” Is Stewart serious? Stewart has always shown himself to be the quintessential opportunistic politician but this is a bit much. That cool $19.1 million to the schools will provide just under 300 new teachers, just as an example of what Stewart thinks is a drop in the bucket is.

He also implies that Frank Principi is profiting from the federal money. This is the first time I have ever heard of obtaining what is the equivalent of grant money being a bad thing. Perhaps Corey Stewart should consider that every penny that comes into the country from the state of federal level pays HIS salary. Wasn’t he looking for grant money this time last year? Let’s see…something about dashboard cameras?

Prince William County needs to grab up every penny of federal stimulus money it possibly can. Corey Stewart needs to stop with the political shenanigans and just act like an adult without political motive every time a microphone is shoved in his face. He appears to be rude and ungrateful. Congressman Connolly needs to be thanked both in writing and in general conversation. He is dismissing this money much the same way he dismissed the millions he planned to spend on the Immigration Resolution.

Some Stimulus for Virginia Schools

Someone just sent me that latest from Virginia Education Association Director of Government Relations Robley Jones. Good news for the schools:

The significance of President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) is just beginning to sink in. Bush bailed out the banks and Obama has bailed out the schools! U.S. Department of Education ARRA funding for the 2009-2010 school year for Virginia includes the following:

State Fiscal Stabilization $1,202,770,052
Title I – $165,311,666
Ed. Technology – $10,801,292
IDEA Part B – $261,415,033
IDEA Part B, Pre-School – $9,470,492
Grand Total – $1,696,587,551

Dr. Frank Barham, the Executive Director of the Virginia School Board Association wisely sent a message to school board members across the state last night offering that, “Our [VSBA] advice is that you implement no RIF policies, amend or adopt new budgets until you get the printout from the state in the next few weeks.”

Please urge your superintendent and school board to follow Dr. Barham’s advice.

I am not sure what all this means but it tells school boards and superintendents to hold off on major decisions until the ink dries.

It looks like almost $1.7 billion dollars is being pumped into Virginia schools. I suppose what would be critical is when and how the money will be divvied up. PWC Schools are short $57 million. Will our notoriety for having the most foreclosures in the state give us a bigger piece of the pie?

Prince William County Home Help Winners Announced Tuesday

More than 150 Prince William County employees had a lucky day on Tuesday. The county received 323 applications for 167 spots in the Home Help Program. Through this program, the county seeks to cut the number of vacant houses in the county by providing low interest loans and reduced mortgage rates to entry level county employees. These employees will become home owners in Prince William County in the very near future, which is seen as a desirable goal.

According to the DC Examiner:

The plan helps fulfill a long-time county goal to have more public employees living in the county. Martino [county finance director] hopes the program will help Prince William recruit and retain employees, many of whom live outside the county and face long commutes.

The county invested $50 million in certificates of deposit at SunTrust Bank to fund the first year of Home Help. County officials emphasized that the money comes from an investment portfolio and does not use taxpayer money.

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Police Officers Converge on the State Capitol Thursday

 

 

Police officers converged at the state Capitol last Thursday to urge lawmakers not to cut any more money from law enforcement funding.  Many of those who went to Richmond, according to the DC Examiner were area Chiefs of Police like Chief Charlie Deane of Prince William Country, Chief Tom Longo of Charlottesville, Chief Doug Davis of Waynesboro, and Chief Rick Clark of Galax. 

 

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AP Reports that Banks Sought Foreign Workers

Several of the banks who have collected billions of dollars from government bailout packages sought permission to bring in thousands of foreign workers for high-paying jobs.

What? Are Americans not being laid off left and right? Why are we importing workers when the American jobless rate continues to grow each week?

A dozen or so banks who have received $150 billion dollars in bail out money have requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past 6 years. The average salaries for these jobs? $90,721. Meanwhile, thousands of American workers have been laid off.

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“Drove My Chevy to the Levee and the Levee Was Dry….

Big 3 Auto Company Bailout

Good grief. You hear nothing else on the news lately.
Has anyone else sorted it all out?

Right to Work states like Virginia do not have the same problems that non-right to work states have. Unions have less influence and strangely enough, workers do not seem too disappointed that there isn’t a union boss hovering around every corner.

It seems that the unions have caused some of the problems. Retirees are living high on the hog and big 3 auto workers are making approximately 60 bucks an hour when the other non-union companies are making around $40 per hour. The terms of their contracts are very lucrative. Other auto plants located in the south east where unions do not have a foothold are prospering. Their workers make much less than their counterparts in the north. How much are union dues eating into paychecks?

On the other hand, what happens if the big 3 fail? How many Americans will be out work? How devastating will the failure be on this industry? Will the American car become a relic of the past? What about the peripheral industries such as dealers, service related jobs, parts, enhancements? What will become of these folks? How many people are we really talking about?

From listening to the news, many senators and congressmen are talking about a chapter 11 restructuring of these companies. It all seems very complicated to me. I tend to look at it as a real part of Americana disappearing. What’s worth saving and why should we save it?

“Drove my Chevy to the levee and the levee was dry….Bye bye Miss American Pie.

[Feel free to make corrections on me. I was free-wheeling in my head with things I have heard the past couple of weeks. My figures might not be accurate.]

Foreclosure Phenomenon in Prince William County

Prince William County Supervisors need to account for this phenomenon. What is the difference between the Counties? What accounts for this horrific occurrence of foreclosures which will most likely have lingering effects for a decade? Plain and simple, it’s the immigration resolution. The sooner Supervisors recognize this fact the faster we could turn this thing around. They have the power to stop the hemorrhaging but will they act on it? Do they prefer to see property values decline, real estate assessments plummet and the County’s budget completely destroyed? Perhaps so.

In my opinion, a more prudent course of action would be to not give anybody further reason to abandon a home. There’s never been a complete cost benefit analysis and it’s becoming pretty evident that any perceived savings from drops in ESoL enrollment have been more than off-set by devastating losses in our residential real estate market. These losses are causing extreme economic hardship among home owners who planned to use their home equity to finance their kid’s education, retirement or financing for business operations. Eventually, we will hit rock bottom but at what cost?

Charging Bulls, at Least for the Day: The Stock Market Rallies

Dow 9,387.61 +936.42 (11.08%)
Nasdaq 1,844.25 +194.74 (11.81%)
S&P 500 1,003.32 +104.10 (11.58%)

Wow! What a day. We needed this. Is the stock market giving the finger to the economic crisis, sort of like it gave the finger to 9/11?

No, we aren’t out of the woods yet. The stock market is a reaction and a prediction of what investors think will be happening in the future. However, let’s hope the bottom is in the past and we are on an upwards climb and today’s rally was a sign of good things to come on the financial horizon.

[Update: Today was the largest single-day gain ever for the Dow]