Ohio gets an extra $1 billion, maybe more, in federal stimulus money

By Joan Mazzolini, The Plain Dealer

December 29, 2009, 5:56PM

 

Thomas Ondrey, Plain Dealer fileThis roadside sign in Geauga County lets motorists know that federal stimulus money paid for the repaving on Wilson Mills Road in Chester Township.CLEVELAND, Ohio — When the federal stimulus program was announced last year, Ohio figured it would get around $8.2 billion. But the state already has surpassed that by $1 billion and could get another billion before the program ends.
The extra money has come mostly through competitive grants that Ohio departments, agencies and others have been able to snag, including more than $140 million for energy and environmental projects.
And the state could still get a $400 million piece of an as yet awarded $4 billion education grant and $564 million for a new rail project to link Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati which Ohio has requested.
"We're in a good position to be competitive for the 'race to the top' (education) money," said Amanda Wurst, spokeswoman for Gov. Ted Strickland.
"But throughout this process, we've been looking at the different opportunities with the competitive and discretionary grants ... and tried to be competitive," she said.
While the emphasis was on creating or saving jobs, a large portion of the $787 billion in federal funds from last February's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, is going directly to state governments to shore up their budgets and for social services such as Medicaid, expanded unemployment benefits and food stamps.
Experts say the money that helped Ohio balance its budget saved the jobs of many state employees.
As of November, more than 640,000 jobs were created or saved by federal funds, including about 17,000 in Ohio, according to the federal board monitoring the spending. An updated jobs report is expected in January.
But nearly one-third of the funds is going directly into Americans' pockets with a payroll tax cut for workers that began in spring of 2009.
The extra federal money that's been awarded to Ohio so far includes such diverse projects as $875,000 to reduce lead poisoning hazards to $29 million for airport runway work to $138 million for nuclear cleanup projects.
Ohio's division of forestry recently received $4.4 million to create an Ohio Woodlands Job Corps to hire workers to remove non-native (invasive) plants such as bush honeysuckle, tree of heaven, and buckthorn, as well as plant trees, build trails and inventory woodland plants.
"The way we view the stimulus is that it gives us the opportunity to do something we never would have been able to do - attack invasive species in Ohio," Dan Balser, Forest Health Administrator for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the coordinator of the Ohio Woodlands Job Corps, said in a statement.
The Renewable Energy Institute International of Toledo is receiving $20 million to develop a biomass plant that will create a synthetic renewable diesel fuel out of wood chips, cornstalks, algae and other materials.
"The future of our economy will be built on these types of innovative projects, and this puts Ohio at the forefront of the renewable energy movement," Gov. Ted Strickland said in statement after learning of the grant. "These unprecedented opportunities help to create jobs and secure the future of Ohio."
U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu visited the plant in early December. He said in a statement that "advanced biofuels are critical to building a cleaner, more sustainable transportation system in the U.S."
Four Ohio projects are receiving more than $17.3 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy for advanced energy research, such as a new battery technology that could reduce the costs for plug-in hybrid and electric cars and speed up their development.
Meanwhile, Ohio recently received federal approval for its appliance rebate program that will begin in 2010. The state has $11 million and that will provide rebates from $100 to $250 for about 90,000 consumers who replace old refrigerators, clothes and dishwashers, gas heaters and electric heat pump water heaters.