Two big news items for federal stimulus today: First, the state will get $1.9 million dollars in federal stimulus for the Services Training Officers Prosecutors Violence Against Women Formula grant program. Long name, but basic mission: Improve safety for victims of sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking or other violence.

What does that mean for victims: “The number of victims served and hours of service delivered through the Office of Crime Victims Advocacy have increased by 60 percent compared to same time last year.” The money will retain 27 jobs across the state and help deal with the increased caseload.

In other federal stimulus news, clean water projects across the state will receive $65.4 million in federal stimulus money. Click through the jump to read the entire list (with money for Spokane, Thurston, Pierce, Kittitas, Benton, Douglas and Pacific counties, to name a few.

So far, $2 billion of federal stimulus has been awarded to Washington and $430 million of it has been spent, according to the state’s Recovery.wa.gov web site.
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Tags: federal stimulus

State agencies that create jobs using federal stimulus money have to post positions to the state’s WorkSource web site.

“We are creating a lot of jobs with the federal recovery money, and we want unemployed workers in our state to have a fair shot at filling them,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said in a release. “WorkSource provides an easily accessible, centralized location for job seekers to see what’s available.”

What kind of jobs might you expect to nab? Federal money is going toward: Highway projects, drinking water repairs, increasing the energy efficiency of low-income homes, park restoration, Hanford clean-up, irrigation system repairs, bike trails, drug prevention and gang prevention.

Tags: federal stimulus

Jennifer Huntley, host of The Impact, sent this in about tonight’s show:

Three to four billion dollars of the federal stimulus money is being used in Washington state for Medicaid, K-12 education, higher education, and corrections. We’ll find out more about how the state is spending its share of the money. Joining us will be the Governor’s Chief of Staff Cindy Zehnder and Jill Satran, the Governor’s Executive Policy Advisor in charge of the federal stimulus.

Also, Gov. Chris Gregoire issued an executive order on climate change this past week. It directs the Department of Ecology to work with industries to cut emissions by 2020. Ecology Director Jay Manning says Washington state must lead on this issue so that the rest of the world will follow. We’ll find out more about what is in the order and how the Department of Ecology plans to carry it out.

Watch The Impact, tonight at 7 p.m. and 10 p.m. on TVW or anytime online at tvw.org.

Tags: climate change, federal stimulus, Schools, The Impact

Washington schools will get $672 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — aka the federal stimulus package — $331 million will be available this fall, according to a release sent out by the U.S. Secretary of Education, Anne Duncan. That dwarfs the $194 million the state has received for education from the stimulus package so far.

The state plans to use all of the money in 2009 for elementary and secondary schools. In 2010, they’ll use most for elementary and secondary schools and about $100 million for public institutions of higher education.

According to the announcement, the additional funding comes after successfully completing the first portion of the state application.

“The $672 million Washington will receive today is part of the single largest boost in education funding in recent history,” Duncan said in the release. She said the state can use the money to “save jobs and lay the groundwork for a generation of education reform.”

To get the money, the state had to make a few promises. Gov. Chris Gregoire and state schools superintendent Randy Dorn signed the application, which you can read here, promising that they’d hold funding for elementary education at 2006 levels or above through fiscal year 2011. In 2006, the state spent $5.4 billion on education. In 2009, the budget is $6.5 billion — so education would have to get cut quite a bit to fall to 2006 levels.

They also pledged to “collect, publish, analyze and act on basic information regarding the quality of classroom teachers, annual student improvements, college readiness, the effectiveness of state standards and assessments, progress on removing charter caps and interventions in turning around underperforming schools.” And they must report back on how many jobs are saved by the boost and/or the amount of tax increases avoided.

One interesting thing about the application: Included in it (Attachment A, Section 4) is a program Gregoire ended up vetoing. The program would have directed funding to low-income areas for all-day kindergarten. She said at the time of the veto that all children deserved all-day kindergarten.

There’s also a part at the end that I don’t quite understand — it looks like some of the money for higher education may go toward reducing the tuition increase… Stay tuned.

Tags: cuts, federal stimulus, Gregoire, Schools

Gov. Chris Gregoire just sent out an announcement that almost $1 million in federal stimulus money will be distributed through the Office of Crime Victims Advocacy, which will help victims of sexual assault and other crimes. The money will go to offices around the state, creating 14 jobs and saving four positions. The workers will be in position by July.

The office is part of CTED and works with more than 250 local agencies to provide crime services.

“I am pleased to see recovery funding going straight to our communities to serve crime victims,” Gregoire said in the release. “I applaud the hard work of the Office of Crime Victim’s Advocacy for recognizing this federal funding opportunity and ensuring Washingtonians can benefit.”

After the jump is a complete list of where the $933,000 is going. For information on where all the federal money is going in Washington, check here. (more…)

Tags: federal stimulus, sexual assault, victims services

The Senate just passed the bill that details where all the federal transportation stimulus money will go. The money came yesterday and, as Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen pointed out, the spend-it-in-120-days-or-lose-it clock is already ticking.

Here is the complete list.

Tags: federal stimulus

The House is debating the bill on how to spend federal stimulus money on transportation projects now.

Representative Judy Clibborn said the state received the money yesterday, and that the swift passage of the bill is a sign of how prepared the state is. She said the bill would improve critical roads across the state and provide jobs for many Washingtonians.

Representative Doug Ericksen said he’s voting against it because voters have already approved a gas tax to pay for some of the projects now being paid for with stimulus money. He said “using it to backfill promises” is evidence of an ineffective state and transportation department.

The debate continues…

Tags: federal stimulus, transportation

Jennifer Huntley just got out of an interview with Dick Thompson, Gov. Chris Gregoire’s federal stimulus liaison. His job: Keep tabs on what’s going on in Washington D.C. and report back home.

He told Huntley that the chances of the Senate and House coming to an agreement by Presidents’ Day is not a sure thing. He said he heard just this morning that it’s not likely. And that means the Legislature’s hope — to use the Feb. 19 preliminary forecast and the similarly timed federal stimulus bill to start writing a state budget — may not materialize.

He said 430 requests from across the state have come in for federal funding. One recent one: An acupuncture clinic, keen on getting some stimulus money.

Also: There’s been some talk about why the federal stimulus is so targeted. Instead of one big check, states will get money directed to specific programs. Why? Because the TARP program — the $700 billion financial institution bailout — was a blank check. And that wasn’t spent wisely in President Barack Obama’s estimation, as evidenced by the billions in bonuses paid out right around the time TARP funds were received.

So, lesson learned, states will get many small checks that are only to be used for specific programs, Thompson said. (Sorry, acupuncture clinic.)

Let me underscore: These are just a few of the gems from Thompson’s 15-minute interview. Watch The Impact tonight at 7 and 10 p.m.

Tags: federal stimulus

Right now, the House Technology and Energy Committee is considering “HB 1699,” High Speed Internet Strategy.”

The goal is to get high-speed Internet across the state, which supporters say could increase employment and education opportunities in rural areas.

But the “strategy” part refers to readying the state for federal money — both possible stimulus money and a 2008 matching grant. As Congress and President Barack Obama hammer out the details of a $700 billion to $1 trillion plan — which so far contains money for states to increase high-speed internet connections — the state is hurrying to make sure they’ll meet requirements to be eligible for the money.

“Internet technology is important to our cities for employment reasons, education reasons and economic development reasons,” said Victoria Lincoln, with the Association of Washington Cities.

Tags: federal stimulus, Internet, Public Policy