Stimulus Watch: Tracking the flow of recovery dollars

According to Sen. Jon Tester’s office, Montana is slated to receive $1,183,051,407.76 in federal funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Add in the additional $575,713,000 in estimated federal tax relief, and Montana’s share of the tax-payer funded economic stimuli comes to around $1.8 billion.

Keeping track of that money is no easy task, despite lawmakers’ promises of transparency. I’ve spent weeks combing state and federal agencies’ Web sites, talking to lawmakers and their staffers, and re-reading dozens of press releases and news stories announcing the approval of various monies for various projects.

I think we’ll be putting those pieces together for a long time before a clear picture begins to form from this stimulus puzzle.

Here’s what I have figured out so far.

About $666 million of the $1.2 billion that will be spent in Montana goes to state programs and projects. Those funds had to be accepted and appropriated by the Montana Legislature, which it did when it passed House Bill 645. Gov. Brian Schweitzer signed that key piece of legislation into law on May 14. At that point, the state agencies could get to work on the plumbing that would be used to distribute the funds.

The remaining $517 million in ARRA funds get funneled through federal agencies such as the Forest Service, for things like fire prevention and road restoration, or the Department of the Interior, for thing like improving the national parks and water projects.

I spent hours examining spreadsheets, charts table and graphs on government Web sites and I talked to about a dozen state and local officials just trying to figure out how the stimulus package is actually supposed to function. As I did so, an analogy began to develop.

The recovery act is like a system of pipes and reservoirs that transfers the money—or water in this model—to “shovel ready projects” and various social safety nets. The federal treasury is the enourmous water tower that sits up on the hill. When Barack Obama signed the $787 billion program into law on Feb. 17, the money—or water in this model—began flowing out of that tower through massive pipelines and into states.

In Montana, much of the plumbing through which the stimulus funds will eventually flow was in place long before the ARRA. Many state agencies are already equipped to receive and spend federal dollars and do so all the time for things like food stamps and highway construction.

Sometimes the money flows to the state coffers first. Those dollars then need to be appropriated by the Legislature. Other times it flows directly to the state agencies, but the Legislature has to give those agencies the authority to turn the valve on and spend the money.

In Montana, the Legislature has sole authority to appropriate money. So even though Obama authorized millions of dollars to flow the state’s way, most of that money couldn’t be tapped until the Legislature passed bills implementing the spending.

So, in Montana, a large volume of the $666 million filled up a big reservoir: the state coffers. From there lawmakers in Helena were charged with the task of constructing smaller pipelines into various state agencies (HB 645). Some of the money went to the Department of Public Health and Human Services for things like shoring up Medicaid and unemployment benefits. Some went to education for improving schools and ensuring children with disabilities have access to quality public education, etc.

Simple, right?

Long story short, the water—or money—has to travel through a vast network of pipes and reservoirs built by an untold number of plumbers before it finally comes out the spigot in the form of new roads, school renovations, or home weatherization, etc.

Next week in the Tribune I’ll begin what I’m sure will end up begin the months-long, if not years-long, task of trying to track how the federal stimulus dollars are flowing in Montana.Think of me as a plumbing inspector.

How much money has actually been spent, and on what? Are new jobs being created? Who’s keeping track of the money and ensuring that it’s being spent wisely? What are lawmakers doing to fulfill the promise of transparency? In short, is the stimulus working in Big Sky Country?

I’m not promising to all of those questions in a week's time, but I’ll begin working on them by taking at look at one specific highway project in order to try to explain to readers how the ARRA money got to Montana, and how it’s being put to use.

In the meantime, here are a few links to recovery Web sites if you want to try your own hand and following the money:

Montana

http://recovery.mt.gov/default.mcpx

Federal

http://www.recovery.gov/

Federal by agency

http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/investments-agency

Sad night in Helena

As I write this, a helicopter is hovering above my house in search of a suspect involved in a shooting that left two people injured and one person dead.

A friend and I were just sitting down at the picnic table in my back yard for some evening beverages and lively political discourse when we heard the gunshots. We both thought it sounded like kids having fun with some pre-4th of July fireworks. It never crossed our minds that it might actually be gun play. A few minutes later the sirens started. Moments later, we saw at least a half dozen police cars racing through my neighborhood. Then came the ambulances. We watched the entire aftermath unfold from about a quarter mile away.

According to the Helena Independent Record, "one person is dead, and two people are injured, in a shooting involving at least four juvenile males late this evening."

We heard those gunshots. It sounded like at least 20 of them. We thought they were a round of Black Cats or something. Because, you know, this is Helena Montana. People don't shoot each other in Helena Montana.

Even after the gunshots--and the nearly two hours of extraordinary police activity on the hill across the gulch from my back yard that followed--I never assumed anything terribly serious had happened. I actually said to my friend, "I bet one of those kids didn't toss the M-80 in time." Maybe an accident. Maybe even a horrible accident. But a shooting? Two people injured and one dead? The thought never crossed mind. Not for a second. Not here.

It wasn't until after I was running through the open land behind my house in search of my disobedient dog who'd run off that I realized something was going on. That's when I saw the patrol cars slowly cruising my neighborhood, shining their blazing spotlights into my and my neighbors' yards. That's when I knew something serious had happened.

update: to answer a reader's question, yes, my dog returned from her late-night stroll a minute later.

The irony for me is that my friend and I, both of us having (relatively) recently moved to Helena from Missoula, had earlier been talking about how safe this town is compared to other places we had lived. "Ha" we said, "We'll find out what happened up on the hill this weekend when we read the Helena crime map in the paper!" Yuk, yuk, yuk. Hell, it was just a day or two ago that I was laughing with some friends about the the fact that I all-too-often forget to lock my car door at night. "And I leave my iPod and wallet on the front seat!" I said. Yuk, yuk, yuk.

"The Helena Police Department issued a reverse 911 call to all residents in the area warning them to remain inside and lock their doors," the IR reported.

Because, you know, this is Helena. Some of us are pretty lax about locking our doors most nights.

That helicopter is still hovering above my house, and as long as I hear those blades chopping at the night sky and the sirens running in the the distance I'm going to wonder what the hell is going on. And yeah, I did lock my doors tonight.

But I still plan to walk to work tomorrow. And then I might walk to the coffee shop for my mid-morning espresso fix. After work I'll probably stroll down to the brewery for a pint and say 'hi' to my friends and neighbors. This weekend I'm sure I'll stop down at the farmers market to buy some more starts for my garden. If I get the back wheel fixed on my bike, I might just take a ride up the same gulch that helicopter keeps circling tonight.

Because this is Helena, and that's what we do.

When the events of this evening--which will undoubtedly be headlines for days to come--are over, Helena will go back to being Helena. And Helena, like all of Montana, is still a safe and great place to live.

Advocates: Baucus regrets decision to take single-payer off the table

Sen. Max Baucus on Wednesday told a group of single-payer advocates that he regrets not including them in earlier Senate discussions, according to sources who participated in closed-door meeting.

“He did admit that coming out right away and saying single-payer was off the table and not going to be a part of the discussion was a mistake,” said Geri Jenkins, president of the California Nurses Association and one of five single-payer advocates who participated in meeting.

Proponents of single-payer health care—a system in which the federal government provides health insurance for all Americans—have been hounding Baucus, a Democrat, for months after Baucus declared the idea “off the table.”

According to two people who participated in Wednesday’s meeting, Baucus said it’s too late for the Senate Finance Committee, which Baucus chairs, to hold additional health care reform hearings on single-payer.

Baucus’ office would not comment on the specifics of the meeting.

“Senator Baucus met privately with single payer advocates today and discussed their shared goals of providing quality, affordable health care to every American,” Baucus spokesman Ty Matsdorf said in an e-mail statement Wednesday afternoon. “Senator Baucus asked them to work together with him to pursue that goal this year.”

Officials with the group Montanans for Single-Payer said they plan to hold rallies at noon on Friday in front of Baucus’ field offices in Great Falls, Helena, Billings, Butte, Bozeman and Missoula.

Read the full story in tomorrow's Great Falls Tribune.

Baucus meeting with single-payer advocates

As I write this, a group of prominent single-payer advocates are meeting with Sen. Max Baucus to try to convince him to put single-payer on the table.

However, Clark Newhall, a Salt Lake City attorney, doctor and single-payer crusader, beat them to the punch this morning. Newhall was one of the first people in the country to publicly question Baucus on his affirmed stance that single-payer is off the table (here's the video). This morning Newhall attended Baucus' public breakfast in Washington, D.C. and challenged the Senate Finance Committee chairman on his position. Newhall sent me this e-mail immediately following the meeting (the embedded linke is mine):

Washington DC -- June 3 -- 8:30 a.m.

I just spoke with Max Baucus at length about single payer. More accurately, I listened to his views and tried to challenge them. Based on that conversation, I predict the following will happen today at the meeting that Marcia Angell, David Himmelstein, Oliver Fein, Geri Jenkins and RoseAnn DeMoro are having with him.

1 -- he will say what a candid and honest guy he is.

2 -- he will say that N-O-B-O-D-Y will vote for single payer in the Senate.

3 -- he will say that N-O-B-O-D-Y has a single payer bill in the Senate; he will not acknowledge SB 703.

4 -- he will say that the "60% of physicians want single payer"
statistic is false.

5 -- he will say that the American people do not want single payer.

6 -- he will say he knows the American people don't want single payer because politicians have a nose for what their constituencies want, mainly because most politicians want to get re-elected.

7 -- he will get nervous if anyone mentions the overwhelming support for single payer that the recent 'listening tour' in Montana revealed.

8 -- he will say that Americans are used to having employer-paid health insurance, and do not want to change.

9 -- he will deny that Medicare is 'uniquely American' and will shy away from using that phrase.

10 -- he will admit that the power of insurance companies has something to do with how the legislation is being shaped in the Senate but, when pressed on that, will reverse position.

11 -- he will rely heavily for his position on the proposition that Obama does not want single payer, and he may point to the recent flat statement of Obama to Sherrod Brown that single payer is off the table.

12 -- he will be obdurately and obstinately close-minded to facts, arguments and moral suasion.

13 -- he will act very involved and interested when the talk turns to 'paying for this' but will deny that single payer pays for itself.

14 -- he will give the impression that removing employer tax breaks for health insurance in some fashion is likely.

Those are my predictions. Let's see how close to the mark they are.

Newhall said he personally spent nearly $60,000 producing and running a series of television and internet ads –which are currently running on CNN, MSNBC, Comedy Central, The Game Show Network and other cable networks—promoting single payer. You can see the ads here. Newhall said those ads have generated more than 67,000 faxes to members of Congress.

“I’ve also collected something like 4,000 voice mails, transcribed them all, sent them off to Baucus and Obama. I just hand delivered about 2,000 of them this morning to Baucus,” Newhall said this morning.

I asked him if he thought any of it was getting through.

“F*** no,” Newhall said.

I’ll be following up on today’s meeting between Baucus and single-payer advocates later today. I’ll let you know if Newhall’s predictions came true.

On a related note:

Eight-one percent of respondents to an unscientific poll currently up on the Missoulian's Web site say single-payer should be included among the options for health care reform. In a similar unscientific poll in the Tribune two weeks ago (no link to the poll results, but here's the forum), 57 percent of respondents said single-payer should be considered.

Stimulus Watch, Part II

Are you or someone you know a contractor looking to contribute to one of the hundreds of “shovel-ready” projects around the state? Do you see an uptick in work thanks to the hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure investment in the state? Or have federal and state agencies passed you by in favor of contracting out-of-state firms to do work your company is qualified to do?

We’re trying to keep eye on how Montana's $1.1 billion share of federal stimulus money is being spent in the state and we need your help. Please contact me and tell me your stimulus-bill related story. I want to know how Montana businesses and communities are being affected by the tax-payer funded American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

This is our money, folks. Help us track how it’s being spent in the state.

Baucus to meet with single-payer advocates

According to the group Single Payer Action, Sen. Max Baucus is planning to meet with five prominent single-payer advocates in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. Dr. Marcia Angell—the former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine and one of the nation’s most outspoken proponents of single-payer—confirmed the meeting with me this morning in via e-mail.

According to Single Payer Action:

On Wednesday June 3, Senator Baucus will meet with Dr. David Himmelstein, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), Dr. Marcia Angell, Senior Lecturer, Harvard Medical School and former editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Oliver Fein, Associate Dean, Cornell Weill Medical School, and President of PNHP, Rose Ann DeMoro, executive director of the California Nurses Association, and Geri Jenkins, president of California Nurses Association.

“Bowing to mounting pressure from single payer advocates around the nation, Senator Baucus has asked to meet with some representatives of the single payer movement,” Dr. Himmelstein said. “It’s the thirteen people who braved arrest at Senate Finance Committee hearing, the hundreds of single payer supporters who’ve shadowed Senator Baucus in his home state of Montana, and the thousands who have put pressure other members of Congress who have created this opening. We have no illusions that our discussions alone will persuade Senator Baucus to back a single payer bill. But the meeting is a clear indication that demonstrations and activism can move even our money-corrupted political culture.”

I don’t know that I have seen a movement in Montana as genuinely grass-roots as the single-payer advocacy I’ve seen in recent weeks. All you had to do was attend one of the 20 listening sessions Baucus’ staff held around the state last week (see photo above: The majority of participants at a health care listening session in Anaconda raised their hands when asked by a member of the audience if they think all Americans — including members of Congress and the president — should have the same level of health insurance coverage). These weren’t highly organized volunteers of some political action group. In fact, Phil Campbell, one of the primary organizers of Montanans for Single Payer, wasn’t even in the state at the time the hearings took place. He and his wife were hiking in Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah.

Apparently, the single-payer advocates’ efforts have at least cracked open the door.

At the same time a corporate-funded organization called Patients United Now—a group fighting to halt health care reform—had a hard time drawing more than 30 people to a rally in downtown Helena on Friday. And they enticed people with the promise of free food.