Mass. could get $11.7b from stimulus
High-speed rail gets boost
By Matt Viser and Michael Kranish
Globe Staff / February 14, 2009
Massachusetts will receive at least $11.7 billion under the federal stimulus package approved yesterday by Congress, providing a significant infusion to plug a growing state budget gap, spur transportation projects, and provide residents with tax relief, medical care, unemployment checks, and other benefits.
About 79,000 jobs would be created or saved in Massachusetts as a result of the federal stimulus, according to a summary distributed by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The state could also benefit significantly from a surprise decision by the House-Senate conferees to quadruple, to $8 billion, funding for high-speed rail projects. While it is too early to say how much would go to the improvement of the Northeast Corridor rail line, US Senator John F. Kerry said yesterday that Massachusetts will be in line for a substantial amount of funding.
The money could be used to bring the existing Acela line up to the 150-mile-per-hour maximum through track improvements, bridge and tunnel construction, and other projects.
Kerry said the definition of "high speed" was left broad enough to leave open the possibility that funding could also be used for commuter rail service to New Bedford and from Lowell to Concord, N.H.
Kerry had cosponsored an amendment for $2 billion in rail improvements, but Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada, who wants a high-speed line to run from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, quadrupled that amount.
"It is huge, not just for Massachusetts, but on a national basis," Kerry said in a telephone interview. "It is the down payment on the move toward a genuine high-speed rail structure in the country. For us in New England, it means we can do the real work of modernizing the track, so we can get the 150 miles per hour" of maximum speed offered by the Acela trains.
Kerry estimated that such a high-speed line could cut travel time from Boston to New York to about 2 1/2 hours and travel time from New York to Washington to about two hours.
The development was greeted with cheers in Boston City Hall. "Modernizing transit is not just good for the economy; it's great for the environment," said Dot Joyce, a spokeswoman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "He fully supports anything that would improve the Acela service to Boston."
State officials and the Massachusetts congressional delegation were still adding up the amount of stimulus that would reach the state yesterday. While it was difficult to determine payout precisely, the state stands to gain at least $11.7 billion, most of it over the next two years, according to the Center for American Progress, a Washington-based advocacy group that supported the bill.
About $5 billion of that would go to residents through tax cuts and other adjustments, such as changes in the alternative minimum tax.
The $11.7 billion figure could rise significantly if the state is able to win other funding that will be allocated for various science, technology, and health programs.
"There's going to be an innovation competition," US Representative Edward J. Markey, a Malden Democrat, said in an interview. "And I think Massachusetts has a comparative advantage. Many of these projects are technology-oriented, and that's going to be our advantage. The green revolution can't be kick-started without Eastern Massachusetts."
The state would receive $1.7 billion in Medicaid funding, according to estimates by the Center for American Progress. A separate analysis by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center cited a much higher estimate for Medicaid money, $3.1 billion.
Other direct benefits to state government include $990 million to help reduce the state's deficit and stem further budget cuts and nearly $800 million in extra funding for education, including $230 million in Pell Grants for college students. The state would also receive about $240 million for clean energy and weatherization projects and $947 million for roads, bridges, and water infrastructure improvements.
State officials have compiled a list of more than 8,000 infrastructure projects, totaling $28 billion, and now must begin to decide which of those would create the most jobs and best help to revive the state's economy. That process will begin almost immediately.
House and Senate lawmakers also agreed yesterday to keep a controversial House provision that provided $50 million to the National Endowment for the Arts. Some Republicans had said the money would not create enough jobs and tried unsuccessfully to shift the funds to road construction. But proponents prevailed in the effort to keep the money, which they said would help artists, actors, and others in the arts to keep their jobs or get new positions.
The Massachusetts Cultural Council would probably get about $400,000, which would be redistributed to various groups and artists, and a similar amount would be sent directly from the NEA to individuals and groups in the Bay State. The funding would help make up for a proposed $600,000 cut in the council's state funding.
"We're grateful that the president and Congress recognized that the arts are an important sector of our economy that is worth investing in," said Gregory Liakos, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma.../14/mass_could_get_117b_from_stimulus/?page=2
