Officials Offer Stimulus Projects; Leaders Discuss How To Use Funds

U.S. Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the House majority leader, came to Louisville yesterday to hear local officials' suggestions on how federal economic-stimulus funds could be spent on public projects.
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Hoyer has been traveling recently to gather local information on how to structure another economic-stimulus package that Congress is considering to help the sagging economy and to put people to work.

Hoyer appeared with U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District. But Carolyn Whitaker-Tandy, Yarmuth's district director, said the visit by the high-ranking Democrat was a matter of congressional business and not intended as a political promotion for Yarmuth.

Yarmuth is running for re-election against Anne Northup, a Republican incumbent he defeated in 2006.

At the Muhammad Ali Center yesterday, Hoyer had a closed meeting for an hour or more with Mayor Jerry Abramson, Yarmuth and representatives of Jefferson County Public Schools, the Transit Authority of River City and the Metropolitan Sewer District. Officials of KentuckianaWorks, the local federally funded jobs agency, and a representative of the local Buildings and Trades Council also attended the meeting.

Afterward, Hoyer, Abramson and Yarmuth answered questions.

America's "families, homes and communities are at risk" in the economic crisis, Hoyer said.

He noted that 750,000 people have lost jobs this year and that America needs to put people to work, and to invest in its aging infrastructure.

Congress is looking for public-works-type projects that are ready to get under way within 90 days. Hoyer said any stimulus package may include more funding for such basics as food stamps and unemployment insurance.

Abramson said the local officials discussed with Hoyer such projects as TARC buying hybrid buses, MSD building pumping stations, the school board's need to widen several roads and the city's need to improve several rural bridges.

Officials said large projects, such as the Ohio River Bridges Project, were not discussed for possible funding under the stimulus initiative.

Abramson spokesman Chad Carlton said the stimulus package would probably contain a process for cities to apply for funding for public-works projects.

Courier-Journal [1]

10/28/08