Louisiana DEQ Deputy Secretary Vladimir Appeaning traveled to Bossier City to present a $22,000,000 check to Mayor Lo Walker to fund work at the Red River Wastewater Treatment Plant. No need to send it through regular channels when you have a media op.
The ‘Build America’ bond, after a rebate, will have an interest rate of .62 percent.
Buddy Shaw, Jane Smith & Henry Burns were all scheduled to attend.
So far, Louisiana has awarded 2,857 grants, loans and contracts for a total of over $3 billion dollars from federal stimulus funds, and is slated to receive a total of over $5 billion.
The Jindal administration has a stimulus website up if you would like to check it out.
To date, this is what Bossier has received so far.
- BOSSIER CITY, CITY OF - Department of Energy Grants $608,600.00
- BOSSIER CITY, CITY OF - Department of Housing and Urban Development Grants $142,026.00
- BOSSIER CITY, CITY OF - Department of Transportation Grants $360,714.40
- BOSSIER CITY, CITY OF - Department of Justice Grants $35,135.00
- BOSSIER CITY, CITY OF - Department of Transportation Grants $1,466,145.50
- BOSSIER CITY, CITY OF - Department of Justice Grants $380,743.50
- BOSSIER CITY, CITY OF - Department of Justice Grants $771,162.00 $380,203.50
- BOSSIER OFFICE OF COMMUNITY SERVICES, INC - Department of Health and Human Services Grants $226,026.00
- BOSSIER OFFICE OF COMMUNITY SERVICES, INC - Department of Health and Human Services Grants $410,776.00
- BOSSIER OFFICE OF COMMUNITY SERVICES, INC - Department of Agriculture Grants $5,000.00
- BOSSIER PARISH COMMUNITY COLLEGE - Department of Education Grants $26,196.00
- BOSSIER PARISH SCHOOL BOARD - Department of Agriculture Grants $21,380.00
- BOSSIER PARISH SCHOOL BOARD - Department of Education Grants $32,876.00
- BOSSIER PARISH SCHOOL BOARD - Department of Education Grants $119,046.00
- BOSSIER PARISH SCHOOL BOARD - Department of Education Grants $3,628,010.00
- BOSSIER PARISH SCHOOL BOARD - Department of Education Grants $2,939,388.00
- BOSSIER PARISH SCHOOL BOARD - Department of Education Grants $84,313.00
- BOSSIER PARISH SCHOOL BOARD - Department of Education Grants $4,491,162.00
- BOSSIER, PARISH OF - Department of Energy Grants $360,000.00
- BOSSIER, PARISH OF - Department of Justice Grants $32,000.00
- BOSSIER, PARISH OF - Department of Justice Grants $32,000.00
- BOSSIER, PARISH OF - Department of Energy Grants $129,000.00
- HOUSING AUTHORITY OF THE CITY OF BOSSIER CITY - Department of Housing and Urban Development Grants $907,714.00
- SHREVEPORT-BOSSIER CONVENTION AND TOURIST BUREAU, INC., Louisiana Department of Transportation Grants $200,280.37
For example, although Bobby Jindal decried the stimulus by saying "Democratic leaders say their legislation will grow the economy. What it will do is grow the government, increase our taxes down the line and saddle future generations with debt," he has managed to live with it.
Heck, he even travels the state with those oversized cardboard checks giving away stimulus money. (Of course, the checks have his name signed on them, not the President's). Just man up fellas, use those manners that your Mama taught you when you were young - you said please and got what you asked for now say thank you.
Thank you, President Obama.
Your just being sarcastic again.
ReplyDeleteYa think?
ReplyDeleteYou had me worried for a minute.
ReplyDeleteI thought about how I was going to comment about the subject of federal grants, but then I thought why not address this subject in the words of a man who is one of my heroes: Ronald Wilson Reagan.
ReplyDeleteThe following says it all and how about federal grants in a book by William F. Buckley, Jr. titled "The Reagan I Knew."
"Well, I think this is - this one of the great problems confronting the states today, and indeed endangering the very federal system of - the system of a federation of sovereign states. The federal government has preempted so much of the tax source, the state finds itself hard put to find sources without upsetting the economic balance that can keep our economy moving. And then in turn, the state, in its desperation for money reduces the local community, where the real basic services that people must depend on every day are furnished. Education, police protection, the maintenance of streets, SEWAGE, garbage disposal, all of these services. And your local communities are even more desperate than the state.
So your states wind up taxing and then by subvention putting a great proportion of the money that is taxed by the [state] back to the local communities.
We go to Washington, and we are face with this hat-in-hand prospect of asking for federal grants. And I know I'm accused of oversimplifying, but it doesn't make sense to me for the federal government to take that money first, and then dispense it back to you in grants in which they tell you how to spend it from Washington, D. C.
And of course, like an agent for a Hollywood actor, there's a certain carrying charge that's deducted in Washington before you get it back again." President Ronald Wilson Reagan.
G.R, that couldn't be better put, could it?
ReplyDeleteIt really is a dilemma. The principled conservative stand would be not to apply for stimulus money. This is money that is being borrowed against future taxes. Bossier City/Parish/Schools already have ample tax funds to supply any need we have, the key word being NEED.
If you claim to be a conservative, don't line up at the trough for any handout that comes along, particularly when your kids and grandkids will have to pay for it.
Don't speak against it with your mouth while your hand is reaching out to receive it.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteI am glad are using this opportunity to educate the public. Now if the public will take this opportunity to educate themselves.
My view was that it didn't make sense to take money from the local and state levels to give to the federal level only to have the federal level to return it to the state and local level. This makes my head spin, and the sad thing is a lot of people think this is a wonderful thing.
When I read Reagan's quote I almost fell over.
I just don't understand why Mayor Walker thinks this is such a great thing, when the money was originally the city's to begin with and now there are strings attached and has to pay interest on something that was originally theirs. It make no sense at all.
But then there is little in the federal government that makes sense.
We can thank Richard Nixon for 'revenue sharing'. Take it from the states and then dole it back, keeping control in Washington.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=3636
As I recall, Nixon's revenue sharing was one of the incentives that was used to turn the Solid South from Democrat to Republican. In those days the Eastern Seaboard, the Industrial Midwest, and the West Coast were flush with cash while the South was poor and backward. At that time, communities in states like LA, AR, & MS were still struggling to get homes hooked up to potable water, and sewerage systems. Collecting taxes from the whole country based on income, and then distributing it to the needy communities seemed like a great idea at the time. Now that a lot of that money is going to Rust Belt areas like Detroit, it does not seem so good for people in the South.
ReplyDeleteNo matter what they call themselves, the political leaders of Bossier are far from republicans. They are anything but conservative, no matter what they pretend to be. They all need voted out.
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 10:49,
ReplyDeleteIn case you didn't notice Bossier City is in the south and not in Michigan or anywhere in the Rust Belt, this money is going into the community we live in, and I will point out another fact, we're not celebrating that it is.
But, GR, aren't you more concerned about the $2Billion that went to Wayne County, Michigan than the $49Million that went to Bossier Parish, Louisiana? Doesn't the redistribution of wealth bother you more now that it is going in a different direction than when Nixon first started it circa 1970?
ReplyDeletethis money is like steriods. sooner or later you have to ween yourself off of it and the results are devastating.
ReplyDeleteEveryone likes to look bowed up, but few will hit the gym and work hard. All cities want to "look" good but few have the balls to make the right choices/tough choices.
The school board is building buildings with one time money --- every business man knows that buildings cost money to keep up. They are adding substantial recurring costs that will swamp the budget and threfore lead to MORE taxes. Because we know damn well they won't downsize.
This is a tactic used by the socialist to infitrate a country. They find weak minded leaders who are willing to bypass hard choices and give them the steroids of government "Free Money"
ITs like giving a college kid a credit card. Such a waste of money. They charge us so much extra in taxes that they cont find any good reason to spend it, so that give it way to other people and then local governments. Most in the government are w-2 employees. not busienss owners. IT pisses me off that they are giving 5 billion dollars of tax collected money to crappy programs that we dont need anyway.
Such an ironic photo op. Republicans passing out and accepting money from a socialist redistribution of wealth concept that was designed to destroy the repubilic by swamping the financial wearwithall of the government. IT reminded me of hte time black civil rights leaders were accepting natural gas from Hugo Chavez a few years ago. What a sign of the times. Hypocracy knows no bounds and will dstroy our concepts.
Anon at 12:52
ReplyDeleteYou did not even hit on the fact that Obama is single handedly detroying the bond market. He is now funding a private sector concept with governmnet dollars. A brilliant move on his part to kill the one growth area of the economy.
Jim,
ReplyDeleteWe wasted 50 million of cybercommand. Couldn't we use all the rent money were collecting to pay for the waste water treatment plant? If I built a fifty million dollar building the rent would be at least 500,000 a month. Especially with all the up dos that cyber strike command central closet space got.
Why cant we use that rent money?