Economic Stimulus or Pork?
Dwight Adams

Alachua County has submitted its request for stimulus projects to Congress. Unfortunately, many of the projects offer few long-term green jobs or result in energy savings or production of renewable energy. Several projects promote more planned sprawl growth that will encourage further inefficient use of personal automobiles. Some specific projects and suggested alternatives that would meet the objectives of the stimulus package that Congress and the President are considering are:

$99.4 million for SW 62 Boulevard: This project was born as an earmark of about $1 million for a developer to increase the colossal Butler Plaza shopping center. The project would have never made it as a top priority without the earmark. Awarding funds for this from the stimulus package would be converting the earmark into full-fledged pork.

Instead of this project and other road resurfacing projects, we suggest funds to improve mass transit. Alachua County is considering Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) that would reduce the use of private automobiles and would be especially beneficial to low-income persons who depend on public transportation. Without Federal funding, BRT is unlikely to happen in Alachua County in the near future. (Limited space to mention, but Gainesville is planning at least one megabuck direct commuter bike trail from SW Haile to Shands).

New heating and air-conditioning for Alachua County Jail: Improving HVAC for the Jail would reduce energy use, but would only provide a few short-term jobs to the HVAC contractor. A better project is that of the County’s Energy Conservation Strategies Commission (ECSC), namely the weatherization of homes of low-income persons who must spend a disproportionate amount of income on heating or cooling of poorly constructed housing. Gainesville Regional Utilities’ (GRU) rebate program for energy-related improvements is inadequate to address the problem and many cannot afford improvements averaging $1,000 per home. County residents who are not GRU customers do not have this option.

Ten million dollars will weatherize 10,000 homes at $1,000 each. Gainesville has several small home energy improvement businesses that could hire and train additional workers to make the improvements. This model program could be copied elsewhere, creating thousands of new green jobs while saving energy and reducing utility bills for low-income people.

Organics recycling facility— ECSC recommended more recycling to include organics. However, an anaerobic digestion facility was recommended rather than the composting facility that the County (ECSC?) requested.

The advantage of anaerobic digestion over composting (aerobic digestion) is that methane is produced and captured in the enclosed facility. The County’s proposed solar PV to be installed on the roof of a composting facility would produce about $500,000 per year from electricity. An anaerobic digestion facility would produce more than ten times as much energy worth about $10 million per year. Furthermore, the methane could power buses in the BRT system, providing a fantastic demonstration project that would be copied nationwide.

Fairgrounds commerce center: The County requested economic development funds to create new fairgrounds while redeveloping existing fairgrounds into a commerce center.

Instead, a higher priority should be given to another ECSC recommendation, namely, inorganic waste recycling through an expanded material recycling facility (MRF) with waste-based industries concentrated around it. An EPA study indicates that a 75% recycling rate for the County (220,000 population) could produce over 1500 jobs with an average pay of $30,000 per year.

Nationwide, the current recycling rate of about 35% provides about 1.1 million jobs. An increase of recycling to 75% would produce another 1 million jobs. To create a demand for recycled materials, stimulus legislation should require 75% recycling and mandate recycled content in packaging and manufactured products. Subsidies to small waste-based industries would be far more effective in creating jobs than subsidies to large agricultural conglomerates for growing corn.