The mass transit stimulus act of 2012

Pro

1. The funding can save both cities money

New York City’s attempt to improve its 911 emergency-communications system has cost $1 billion more than budgeted, for a total expense of $2.3 billion, Comptroller John Liu said. (Bloomberg 2012)

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-21/nyc-911-improvement-plan-is-1-billion-over-budget-liu-says.html

State budget estimates for the upcoming fiscal year show that states still face a long and uncertain recovery. For fiscal year 2013, the fiscal year that begins July 1, 2012, 30 states have projected or have addressed shortfalls totaling $49 billion.[1]

The Great Recession that started in 2007 caused the largest collapse in state revenues on record. Since bottoming out in 2010, revenues have begun to grow again, but states are still far from fully recovered. As of the third quarter of 2011, state revenues remained 7 percent below pre-recession levels, and are not growing fast enough to recover fully soon ( Center of budget and policy priorities 2012)

http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=711

Gov. Chris Christie's office late Thursday announced the governor will address a special joint session of the Legislature next Thursday, Feb. 11, regarding the state's 2009-10 budget's $2 billion deficit.

Earlier Thursday, Christie spoke with both Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney (D-Gloucester) and Assembly Speaker Sheila Y. Oliver (D-Essex) to request the joint session.

The budget crisis New Jersey is facing appears to only be getting worse.

David J. Rosen, the Grim Reaper of the New Jersey state government's fiscal nightmare, appeared before the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee Thursday and told them the deficit legislators and the governor must overcome when crafting the 2010-11 budget by June 30 could climb as high as $11 billion. ( New jersey news room 2010)

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/state/new-jerseys-state-budget-deficit-could-reach-11-billion

2. Cities need money to improve other issues

At the current rate of spending, New York will have $80 billion in unmet infrastructure needs over the next 20 years unless state, federal and local governments work together to improve multi-year capital planning and better fund infrastructure projects, cautioned State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli in areport he released today in Syracuse. DiNapoli’s report estimates the state’s capital needs for repairing roads, bridges, and water and sewer lines will swell to a quarter trillion dollars over the next 20 years.

“New York’s deteriorating infrastructure is a serious problem, an $80 billion problem,” DiNapoli said. “Governments at every level – federal, state and local – must face the state’s aging infrastructure head on. This won’t be easy but if we don’t invest, our infrastructure will fall apart. Now more than ever, localities have to work together and work smarter to improve capital planning regionally. Government can accomplish so much more when – on a regional basis – we prioritize our mutual needs, pool our resources and get the job done.

( Thomas DiNapoli Office of the New york Comptroller 2009 )

http://www.osc.state.ny.us/press/releases/aug09/081009.htm

Big budgets and rising taxes could soon send two Westchesterpolice departments into extinction.

Many of the suburbs north of the city are defined by their ability to field a local police force, and residents of Mount Kisco and Pleasantville told CBS2′s Lou Young that it is more than just a simple luxury.

( Cbs News 2012)

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/02/01/budget-problems-could-close-two-westchester-police-departments/

It was 162 officers who were let go, out of more than 1,200. And NPR obtained internal crime data for the city for six and a half months since the layoffs took effect. If you compare those statistics to the same time period last year, murders are up 52 percent. Car thefts, 33 percent. Robberies, 16 percent. And the number of shooting victims saw a 66 percent increase. During all this, cops performed about 4,000 fewer arrests.

(Renee Montagne National Public radio 2011)

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/30/137518416/newark-budget-cuts-mean-less-police-presence

3. Will not negatively effect the federal government

The president's proposed fiscal 2012 budget requests $553 billion for the Defense Department's base spending and another $118 billion for Afghanistan and Iraq for a total of $671 billion.

While the base budget would rise $22 billion above the fiscal 2010 figure expected to be available this year, the funds for Iraq and Afghanistan would drop by $41 billion from the $159 billion expected for this year. That would put the proposed overall fiscal 2012 figure almost $20 billion under overall defense spending for the current year.

Increased spending next year would go to cybersecurity, which would total $2.3 billion, and to new but far lesser expenditures to protect against biological weapons.

The budget would eliminate some weapons systems, including the $13 billion Marines amphibious landing craft called the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle -- a decision already announced. It also deals with skyrocketing military health care costs through what are termed "efficiency and management reforms" projected to save nearly $8 billion over the next five years.

Next year, however, outlays for 9.6 million active and retiree Defense health care beneficiaries, plus construction of hospitals and clinics, is scheduled to grow to $52 billion. But the increases projected are less than in past years.

Another $12.8 billion is requested for Afghan security forces, up nearly $1 billion from the current year request and even more from the amount contained in the current fiscal 2011 continuing resolution.

( Washington Post 2012)

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2011/02/budget-2012-defense-department.html

argument: 12 billion more would not hurt

Con

1. No need

Thousands of late-night subway riders will have to find a different way to get around this week.

Service at more than a dozen stations on the Lexington Avenue line will be suspended for the next four nights, and into the early morning.

As of Monday, from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., 15 stations along the 4, 5 and 6 line will be shut down for track work and station repairs.

1010 WINS’ Terry Sheridan with straphangers

The work will span stations from Grand Central/42nd Street and run to Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said the inconvenience will be worth it in the long run because the “FASTRACK” repairs will take what could have been multiple weeks of inconvenience and turn it into just a few days.

It will also be safer for the workers and will save the MTA $10-15 million.

( Cbs news 2012)

2. America is not economically stable

SHANGHAI — China, the largest foreign holder of United States debt, said Saturday that Washington needed to “cure its addiction to debts” and “live within its means,” just hours after the rating agency Standard & Poor’s downgraded America’s long-term debt.

Graphic

The harshly worded commentary, released by China’s official Xinhua news agency, was Beijing’s latest effort to express its displeasure with Washington.

Beijing’s reaction to the downgrade was the harshest among foreign leaders. Japan — which held $882 billion in United States Treasuries at the end of last year, making it the second-biggest overseas holder of American debt — did not release any official statement about the downgrade. A Finance Ministry official said he could not comment
.

( New york times 2011)

America clocked up a record last week. The latest drop in house prices meant that the cost of real estate has fallen by 33% since the peak – even bigger than the 31% slide seen when John Steinbeck was writing The Grapes of Wrath.

Unemployment has not returned to Great Depression levels but at 9.1% of the workforce it is still at levels that will have nerves jangling in the White House. The last president to be re-elected with unemployment above 7.2% was Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The US is a country with serious problems. Getting on for one in six depend on government food stamps to ensure they have enough to eat. The budget, which was in surplus little more than a decade ago, now has a deficit of Greek-style proportions. There is policy paralysis in Washington.

( Guardian 2011)

3. Federal funding is inefficient

Soaring government spending and trillion-dollar budget deficits have brought fiscal responsibility -- and reducing government waste -- back onto the national agenda. President Obama recently identified 0.004 of 1 percent of the federal budget as wasteful and proposed eliminating this $140 million from his $3.6 trillion fiscal year 2010 budget request. Aiming higher, the President recently proposed partially offsetting a costly new government health entitlement by reducing $622 billion in Medicare and Medicaid "waste and inefficiencies" over the next decade. Taxpayers may wonder why reducing such waste is now merely a bargaining chip for new spending rather than an end in itself.

It is possible to reduce spending and balance the budget. In the 1980s and 1990s, Washington consistently spent $21,000 per household (adjusted for inflation). Simply returning to that level would balance the budget by 2012 without any tax hikes. Alternatively, merely returning to the 2008 (pre-recession) spending level of $25,000 per household (adjusted for inflation) would likely balance the budget by 2019 without any tax hikes.

50 Examples of Government Waste

1. The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008.[1]
2. Washington spends $92 billion on corporate welfare (excluding TARP) versus $71 billion on homeland security.[2]
3. Washington spends $25 billion annually maintaining unused or vacant federal properties.[3]
4. Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them -- costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually -- fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve.[4]
5. The Congressional Budget Office published a "Budget Options" series identifying more than $100 billion in potential spending cuts.[5]
6. Examples from multiple Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports of wasteful duplication include 342 economic development programs; 130 programs serving the disabled; 130 programs serving at-risk youth; 90 early childhood development programs; 75 programs funding international education, cultural, and training exchange activities; and 72 safe water programs.[6]
7. Washington will spend $2.6 million training Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly on the job.[7]
8. A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. Examples of taxpayer-funded purchases include gambling, mortgage payments, liquor, lingerie, iPods, Xboxes, jewelry, Internet dating services, and Hawaiian vacations. In one extraordinary example, the Postal Service spent $13,500 on one dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, including "over 200 appetizers and over $3,000 of alcohol, including more than 40 bottles of wine costing more than $50 each and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold." The 81 guests consumed an average of $167 worth of food and drink apiece.[8]
9. Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually.[9]
10. The Securities and Exchange Commission spent $3.9 million rearranging desks and offices at its Washington, D.C., headquarters.[10]
11. The Pentagon recently spent $998,798 shipping two 19-cent washers from South Carolina to Texas and $293,451 sending an 89-cent washer from South Carolina to Florida.[11]
12. Over half of all farm subsidies go to commercial farms, which report average household incomes of $200,000.[12]
13. Health care fraud is estimated to cost taxpayers more than $60 billion annually.[13]
14. A GAO audit found that 95 Pentagon weapons systems suffered from a combined $295 billion in cost overruns.[14]
15. The refusal of many federal employees to fly coach costs taxpayers $146 million annually in flight upgrades.[15]
16. Washington will spend $126 million in 2009 to enhance the Kennedy family legacy in Massachusetts. Additionally, Senator John Kerry (D-MA) diverted $20 million from the 2010 defense budget to subsidize a new Edward M. Kennedy Institute.[16]
17. Federal investigators have launched more than 20 criminal fraud investigations related to the TARP financial bailout.[17]
18. Despite trillion-dollar deficits, last year's 10,160 earmarks included $200,000 for a tattoo removal program in Mission Hills, California; $190,000 for the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming; and $75,000 for the Totally Teen Zone in Albany, Georgia.[18]
19. The federal government owns more than 50,000 vacant homes.[19]
20. The Federal Communications Commission spent $350,000 to sponsor NASCAR driver David Gilliland.[20]
21. Members of Congress have spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars supplying their offices with popcorn machines, plasma televisions, DVD equipment, ionic air fresheners, camcorders, and signature machines -- plus $24,730 leasing a Lexus, $1,434 on a digital camera, and $84,000 on personalized calendars.[21]
22. More than $13 billion in Iraq aid has been classified as wasted or stolen. Another $7.8 billioncannot be accounted for.[22]
23. Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. In addition, debit cards provided to hurricane victims were used to pay for Caribbean vacations, NFL tickets, Dom Perignon champagne, "Girls Gone Wild" videos, and at least one sex change operation.[23]
24. Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications.[24]
25. Congress recently gave Alaska Airlines $500,000 to paint a Chinook salmon on a Boeing 737.[25]
26. The Transportation Department will subsidize up to $2,000 per flight for direct flights between Washington, D.C., and the small hometown of Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) -- but only on Monday mornings and Friday evenings, when lawmakers, staff, and lobbyists usually fly. Rogers is a member of the Appropriations Committee, which writes the Transportation Department's budget.[26]
27. Washington has spent $3 billion re-sanding beaches -- even as this new sand washes back into the ocean.[27]
28. A Department of Agriculture report concedes that much of the $2.5 billion in "stimulus" funding for broadband Internet will be wasted.[28]
29. The Defense Department wasted $100 million on unused flight tickets and never bothered to collect refunds even though the tickets were refundable.[29]
30. Washington spends $60,000 per hour shooting Air Force One photo-ops in front of national landmarks.[30]
31. Over one recent 18-month period, Air Force and Navy personnel used government-funded credit cards to charge at least $102,400 on admission to entertainment events, $48,250 on gambling,$69,300 on cruises, and $73,950 on exotic dance clubs and prostitutes.[31]
32. Members of Congress are set to pay themselves $90 million to increase their franked mailings for the 2010 election year.[32]
33. Congress has ignored efficiency recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services that would save $9 billion annually.[33]
34. Taxpayers are funding paintings of high-ranking government officials at a cost of up to $50,000 apiece.[34]
35. The state of Washington sent $1 food stamp checks to 250,000 households in order to raise state caseload figures and trigger $43 million in additional federal funds.[35]
36. Suburban families are receiving large farm subsidies for the grass in their backyards -- subsidies that many of these families never requested and do not want. [36]
37. Congress appropriated $20 million for "commemoration of success" celebrations related to Iraq and Afghanistan.[37]
38. Homeland Security employee purchases include 63-inch plasma TVs, iPods, and $230 for a beer brewing kit.[38]
39. Two drafting errors in the 2005 Deficit Reduction Act resulted in a $2 billion taxpayer cost.[39]
40. North Ridgeville, Ohio, received $800,000 in "stimulus" funds for a project that its mayor described as "a long way from the top priority."[40]
41. The National Institutes of Health spends $1.3 million per month to rent a lab that it cannot use.[41]
42. Congress recently spent $2.4 billion on 10 new jets that the Pentagon insists it does not need and will not use.[42]
43. Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers -- the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans.[43]
44. Medicare officials recently mailed $50 million in erroneous refunds to 230,000 Medicare recipients.[44]
45. Audits showed $34 billion worth of Department of Homeland Security contracts contained significant waste, fraud, and abuse.[45]
46. Washington recently spent $1.8 million to help build a private golf course in Atlanta, Georgia.[46]
47. The Advanced Technology Program spends $150 million annually subsidizing private businesses; 40 percent of this funding goes to Fortune 500 companies.[47]
48. Congressional investigators were able to receive $55,000 in federal student loan funding for a fictional college they created to test the Department of Education.[48]
49. The Conservation Reserve program pays farmers $2 billion annually not to farm their land.[49]
50. The Commerce Department has lost 1,137 computers since 2001, many containing Americans' personal data.[50]

( Heritage foundation 2012)

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2009/10/50-examples-of-government-waste