On the heels of a report showing a sharp unemployment spike in the Bay State, Gov. Deval Patrick's pick to oversee infrastructure spending from the stimulus package expressed confidence in the ability of federal funds to spur local job growth.
"I have never seen such an incredible focus -- or the entirety of state government mobilized so totally -- on an effort," Jeffrey Simon, who last month assumed the position of director of infrastructure investment for the state, told the Daily. "The [state] government has laid down a commitment to get people back to work as quickly as possible and to do it in not only a quick way, but a very thoughtful ... and competent way."
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development last week put the state's unemployment rate for January at 7.4 percent, up a full point from December. State officials hope, though, that their share of the federal government's $787 billion stimulus package will help turn back the tides.
"I think that we will be able to put people back to work," said Simon, who will work exclusively with stimulus money. "And it's not only that person's income, but it's the taxes that that person pays, it's the goods and services that that person buys. The spinoff effects of helping someone get a job are tremendous."
Of the approximately $11 billion Massachusetts will receive from the stimulus bill, around $1-2 billion will be for infrastructure use. Competition between cities and towns for the infrastructure money has been fierce, particularly because the state suffers from a crumbling transportation system.
"Infrastructure is incredibly important," U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) told the Daily. "We have old infrastructure here -- and not just roads and bridges, but [also] water and sewer plants."
Simon, who is also an Experimental College lecturer, is currently poring over $27 billion in infrastructure funding requests and trying to decide how to whittle down the list, which is 8,300 applications long. He will ultimately provide Patrick with a recommended course of action.
The total value of the proposals is more than 13 times the tentative maximum of $2 billion that Simon will be dealing with. "There simply isn't enough money to fund them all," he said.
Since officials will only be able to fund a select few projects, they are looking to maximize the long-term impacts of the spending, even as some politicians on the national level question whether that is possible.
The stimulus funds are one-time injections into states' coffers, which means that local governments may be left picking up the tab for some programs after federal money dries up.
"I worry in the long term how we're going to pay for it all," former Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift, a Republican, told the Daily, referring to the new initiatives the state government will undertake with the stimulus funds. "People will look to Washington and Boston to have the money continue to flow ... I just am fearful that the appetite we are building for federal funds just isn't sustainable."
Citing similar concerns, a handful of current Republican governors have engaged in public hand-wringing about whether to accept portions of the funding.
But Simon firmly rejected the thought of turning down money.
"My attitude is bring it on, because these are use-it-or-lose-it funds, and if you don't meet the deadline, they will be redistributed to other states," he said. "And I can tell you that [Patrick's] administration is not going to leave one extra dollar on the table that we can bring into Massachusetts to put people back to work."
He also said that, at least with infrastructure spending, the state can handpick projects that will create growth without imposing undue future burdens.
"We want to minimize the impact on long-term operating budgets," he said. "And in lots of instances, you can do that. A paving project, for example, dramatically reduces the maintenance budget of a city or town or the state. It also has traffic benefits, has clean air benefits, has lots of kinds of benefits that ... we think about."
As Simon evaluates proposals, Medford and Somerville officials are keeping their fingers crossed.
"I want every penny I can get," Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn told the Daily. Medford's flagship request is for $11.9 million to renovate its city yards, which have plumbing, asbestos and energy problems.
"It is not energy-efficient," McGlynn said of the structure as it currently stands. "It's the opposite of anything that is a green initiative."
McGlynn is also hoping to receive funding to do work on the athletic fields, pool and science facilities at Medford High School.
In Somerville, officials have submitted $140,915,000 worth of requests. The heftiest application is for $56 million for development in Assembly Square.
The project, which has been in the works for years, looks to convert 66.5 acres of former industrial space along the Mystic River into a transit-oriented community. Current estimates indicate that between this year and 2013, the initiative will create 8,000 construction jobs and 4,000 permanent positions.
Simon would not comment on specific projects, other than mentioning the nearly $438 million that the federal government approved late last week for infrastructure initiatives in Massachusetts. He said that a series of other announcements will come in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, local leaders are not sure what to expect, but they hope to have as much discretion as possible about how funds are spent in their jurisdictions.
"We don't know at this point what conditions or strings are attached to that money," McGlynn said of the stimulus funds. "We're looking for flexibility in the money they're giving us. That should be the goal."
But most of the federal funds are set aside for specific purposes. Of the $1-2 billion that Simon is overseeing, for example, only a minority of the money is for discretionary spending.
According to Simon, federal agencies are still compiling final guidelines for the funds, so it remains unclear how much of the infrastructure money is earmarked.
But where the state government does have discretion, Simon promised a thorough vetting process.
"With $27 billion in requests and $2 billion [to distribute], every project will be scrutinized extremely carefully to make sure that it's shovel-ready, that it's a well-thought-out project, that it's in conformance with the policies of the administration, and that it will make a long-term contribution," he said.
He also emphasized that funds will make it to all parts of the state and that they will be distributed transparently.
To ensure an open process, the state government has set up the Web site www.mass.gov/recovery, which allows residents to track the progress of the funds.
"That commitment to transparency -- to civic engagement -- is very real," Simon said.
Simon's appointment has drawn a sharp backlash from Republicans on Beacon Hill, who have argued that the state pension he receives is symbolically at odds with their goal to reform a broken payout system. Simon started getting the pension after he was fired, supposedly over political differences, from the Massachusetts Government Land Bank in 1995.
Republicans have also dismissed Simon's position itself as unnecessary and his $150,000 salary as a waste of state money, noting that most of the infrastructure funds are already earmarked.
"What [is he] going to be doing? Because this is really plugging money into holes in our budget," State Rep. George Peterson (9th-Worcester) told the Daily.
Tom Birmingham, a former president of the state Senate and a visiting faculty member in Tufts' political science department, defended the creation of the position.
"I think that we might be penny-wise and pound-foolish if we say that we're going to save on a $150,000 salary when we're talking about dispersing [billions]," he said.
