ADDITIONAL "STIMULUS BILL" FUNDS AROUSE PASADENA

Pasadena Sub Rosa ^ | June 13, 2009 | Wayne Lusvardi

[WayneLusvardi]

The online Urban Dictionary humorously defines "stimulus bill" as "the money owed to a hooker."

Joke:

Robbie: Hey can i borrow some money? Joe: Why? Robbie: I have to pay my stimulus bill from last night.

But it's no joke that the Obama Administration has allocated "another" $6 million to "cash-strapped" Pasadena according to the Pasadena Star News. Read: "Cash-Strapped City of Pasadena Receives Another $6 Million in Stimulus Funding" - here http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_12581182

However, the reportage of the Pasadena Star News, which has been making a comeback of late, is disappointing to say the least on this topic.

First of all, Pasadena is not a "cash-strapped" City. Last time the city reported its financial status it had over $675 million in cash, reserves, and investments quietly squirreled away in what amounts to an endowment fund for the City.

Secondly, the newly-announced $6 million in stimulus funds, plus the previous $6 million and $1 million in funds to fight homelessness, totalling $13 million, amounts to only 1.9% of the city's total annual budget for 2009 and a mere 0.1% (1/10th of 1%) of the city's 2002 Gross City Product (sum total of goods and services). The Star News failed to report how puny this stimulus amounts to. What the city needs is the economic equivalent of Viagara, not some placebo or impotent drug.

Next, the types of monies that the city will receive are in the form of Detroit-style economic stimulus funds targeted for blue collar unions to be oddly spent in a service-oriented economy such as Pasadena.

About $2.5 million in "Recovery Zone Bonds" are to be spent in economic development projects, which the Star News reports as "job training and educational programs." Is Pasadena going to re-train all those laid off white collar mortgage industry workers from Countrywide and Indymac as solar panel installers, or what? And last we heard, many of the solar panel manufacturers have moved out of California due to high taxes.

And $3.8 million has been allocated for "large manufacturing plants, distribution centers, and hotels." Pasadena has no known land available for large industrial plants or warehouses. There is a site already primed for hotel development at Fair Oaks and Walnut Avenue, but which hotel chain would risk building a hotel in Pasadena in the middle of a depression?

Unfortunately, Obama's "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" is not being structured as a block grant that each city can apply as they best see fit. The funds are a square peg for a round hole.

One of the best fits for stimulus funds in Pasadena would be investments in upgrading the recharge basins for the Raymond Basin to keep water rates low for large businesses. Unfortunately, the stimulus monies apparently can not be flexibly applied to such projects.

Maybe there is some truth to the above-described vulgar joke about the "stimulus bill." The joke would go like this: in Pasadena the stimulus bill funds will be applied to build yet another motel/hotel in East Pasadena. At least that way the funds will trickle down to those at the very bottom of the economic ladder.

[ColoradoUSA]

Is this Pasadena Texas or Pasadena California?
Regardless, you can be sure the Socialists in Washington either bought someone or paid a corrupt political debt with this money.

[bradactor]

This has to be Pasadena CA a liberal haven. Pasadena TX is considered more red neck by some.

[tajgirvan]

January 1st is the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl which happens in Pasadena, California so the need for new hotels is legitimate. NOT everyone in Pasadena,CA. is a liberal. You paint with a very wide brush!

[bradactor]

In California as well as Texas you have a mixture of liberals and conservatives but I knew from the article what this was about. Again with California practically going bankrupt because of welfare spending and government spending galore and fradu spending, drastic cuts may be needed in every area that is not needed if you want the state to survive. As much as I love California, I remember a young Afro American person told me several years ago on the street and I mean like over five years that California was nothing but a welfare state. He came from there.