Stimulus funds flowing into Colorado, region

Feeling stimulated yet?

The $787 billion federal stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama on Feb. 17 has so far sent hundreds of millions of dollars flowing to Colorado to finance road construction, provide weatherization assistance for low-income residents, fund small business loans, backfill strapped education budgets, put police officers on the streets and provide funding for dozens of other programs.

In Northern Colorado, Weld County has received more than $142.9 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act while Larimer County has received more than $45.5 million, according to Recovery.com, a web site that’s tracking distribution amounts.

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Sometimes the spending is easily visible, as with the interchange improvement project at Crossroads Boulevard and Interstate 25 in Loveland. The $6.5 million project got under way in August and is expected to be done by late spring 2010. About $3 million of the project is being paid for with ARRA funds.

Frank Hempen, project manager for the city of Loveland, said improvements near The Ranch fairgrounds and new Embassy Suites hotel were badly needed. “The traffic volumes at the I-25 and Crossroads intersection have continued to rise because of development in the area,” he said. “It’s created some significant traffic jams with traffic backing up all the way out onto the interstate.”

Hempen said ARRA funding made the difference on when the project could get moving. “That was the money that closed the gap so we could move forward,” he said. “That $3 million made the project possible.”

Jalisco International, a Commerce City-based construction company, is general contractor for the project. Hempen said Jalisco is employing 33 workers and another 43 labor jobs are expected to be funded over the life of the project, with many of those jobs coming through local subcontractors.

Not just big projects

Many more smaller, behind-the-scenes projects are also getting ARRA funds in Northern Colorado. Take the $9,550 going to the Larimer Food Bank, which provides groceries to about 12,000 low-income county residents every month. Amy Pezzani, executive director, said the stimulus grant bought shopping carts.

“It’s sort of like a grocery store here, so we always need shopping carts,” she said. “Like any grocery, sometimes these shopping carts get lost so we need to replace them. We couldn’t facilitate the program without them. It’s definitely part of our infrastructure need.”

Then there’s Salud Family Health Centers, which is using $1.1 million to increase its services to low-income patients at its nine clinics across six counties, including Larimer and Weld. Salud is also receiving $2.5 million to build a new facility in Fort Morgan that will double the size of the existing clinic.

Jennifer White, Salud’s development director, said the ARRA funds have been much appreciated in a year that saw patient numbers go up while the state was cutting $4.9 million in its funding.

“It’s just a fact that with the economic downturn we’re seeing an increased demand for services by patients,” she said.

Weatherization, justice funds

Weatherization money has also flowed into Larimer and Weld counties, with Larimer receiving $3.8 million and Weld getting $4.1 million of about $80 million being distributed statewide.

Justice Assistance Grants totaling more than $700,000 in Weld County have helped fund new police officers and law enforcement programs in Greeley, Fort Lupton, Firestone, Johnstown, Evans and Weld County. A similar amount is being spread across police and sheriff departments in Larimer County, Fort Collins, Loveland, Berthoud and Estes Park.

Victims of crime are also receiving ARRA funds, including Crossroads Safehouse in Fort Collins, which is getting $500,000 to expand its Housing Opportunity and Mentoring Enrichment project and another $50,000 to retain five relief advocates who provide emergency responses to victims of domestic violence.

Local transit districts are receiving $2 million in Weld County and $3.4 million in Larimer County, including the Fort Collins-Loveland Airport, which is spending $557,000 to improve its taxiway.

More funds are supporting job training and small business loans, along with K-12 and higher education programs in both counties. Then there’s emergency and extended unemployment benefits that have been shored up with ARRA funding, amounting to $14.6 million in Weld County and $15.9 million in Larimer County through Oct. 1.

A full list of Recovery Act-funded programs is available on the state’s official tracking website at www.colorado.gov/recovery. The federal government is also posting information on ARRA spending at Recovery.gov.

$2.6 billion so far

Myung Oak Kim, communications manager for the state’s Recovery Act reporting, said Colorado is distributing ARRA funds coming through 140 different federal programs. She said $2.6 billion has been awarded so far in the cash-strapped state, funding more than 1,000 projects.

Kim said Colorado has so far received about $368 million in unemployment funds.

“Pretty much anybody getting unemployment is getting more money and for a longer time because of the Recovery Act,” she said.

Despite all the spending, there’s still more to come. On Nov. 15, Gov. Bill Ritter said only about 40 percent of the stimulus funding has arrived in Colorado so far, with the remainder expected over the next year.

As of the end of September, about 6,000 jobs in Colorado had been created or sustained by stimulus funding. Job creation is one area that critics have attacked, saying the Obama administration over-projected the number of jobs that would be funded in the state – at one point estimating 59,000. A Denver Post analysis of federal data earlier this month found some ARRA recipients over-reporting the number of jobs created or saved.

Despite additional worries over future deficits caused by stimulus spending, business management may be warming up to ARRA.

A Deloitte survey of business managers between Sept. 10 and Oct. 12 found while only 32 percent of those who responded believed ARRA had improved economic conditions in the nation, 49 percent said they expected to see improvement by the end of 2010.