Stimulus II

I keep getting asked about a second stimulus or more stimulus. I’m all for it! Let’s call it Stimulus II.

This second stimulus should be aimed at job growth only. The money would not go to banks, or cash for clunkers or whatever but job growth only. A large portion of this Stimulus II money would need to flow down from the federal government to the state governments.

1. With Stimulus II money we would get the state departments and agencies back to their pre recession employment figures and then add additional fulltime or contract/temporary employees to finish up information technology projects that have been shelved.

2. Some of this money would go to the educational system. Schools are closing and staff is being laid off. Let’s reverse this trend if the schools are closing because of lack of money rather then enrollment.

3. Local transportation projects can be funded with Stimulus II too. Our roads are a mess and bridges are not safe.

4. Fire and police departments could benefit too. Let’s stop and reverse any trends in laying off fire and police personal and maybe even fund a few new projects, police vehicles, fire and rescue trucks and so on.

These four areas alone would “jump start” the local economies. Let’s face it, our local state governments have lots of work that needs to be done and it never gets done because of the lack of money. Let’s get these projects funded, staffed and eventually completed. As the local governments employ more people and buy more from the local economy the private sector will come back to life.