WAIT! I thought the Stimulus was supposed to, well, stimulate good jobs at good wages! - Granite Grok

WAIT! I thought the Stimulus was supposed to, well, stimulate good jobs at good wages!

 

Road Paving

When I heard HOW Obama was going to spend the stimulus – Keynesian philosophy – I immediately thought

"Well, these jobs won’t last long",

especially when I heard the magic word "paving".  And I was right….

All around NH, I saw (and heard of) a number of paving jobs being let and done.  But the thought was Er, we’re paving roads, some of which have just been done in the last couple/few years.  These aren’t NEW roads, merely repaving jobs for the most part.  How long can those seasonal jobs last?

And of course, all of the big paving contractors in NH were falling all over themselves to get the contracts and PUSHING for more – Instant jobs!  Infrastructure!  Money!  Stimulus!

Rent-seeking.  Tax dollars wasted (example – large swath on Rt 106 in front of and either side of the race track (think NASCAR) was done – aGAIN!.

Well, as Reverend Wright once said "the chickens have come home to roost!" – and the jobs have gone back to the henhouse….to sleep (emphasis mine).

Paving firms fear end of stimulus

BELMONT – The summer of 2009 was a boom time for Pike Industries and other paving firms in the state as $130 million in federal stimulus funds poured into the state, the equivalent of a full year of spending for the state Department of Transportation’s typical highway and bridge program.

But with $110 million of the highway stimulus already spent or committed under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, prospects are not as bright for the coming construction season.

Boom to bust.  When one depends on government, and that level is depending on another, well, your business environment becomes "dynamic".  Essentially, paving firms live off the government and off of the taxes they raise.  And given that the Feds just delivered a dump truck load of cash to be spent in a short amount of time – well, you ramp up and when the truck load slides out the back end, well, you’re done.

"We had a good year and I’m a big fan of what the stimulus did for us. The state Department of Transportation did a great job of getting the stimulus money out in a timely manner so it could have an immediate impact. But next year looks pretty bleak with only $20 million left," says Christian Zimmermann, Pike’s CEO.

He said that the company, which employs 1,200 people across northern New England, faces the prospect of as many as 150 layoffs next year.

So, will they be knocking on the door of the politicians with outstretched hands…again?

…"The last time they went through reauthorization it got bogged down; we had to wait while funding was provided through continuing resolutions which kept it at the same level. Not knowing what the funding level is going to be takes away your ability to do long-term planning and make investments," said Zimmermann.

Ah, the bottom line – and where have I heard this before?  Oh yeah – pretty much from any business owner / manager.  The Obama Administration has created an environment in which there is chaos – what will taxes do?  Healthcare costs?  Environmental concerns?  Regulatory strictures?

When everything is all said and done, I’m betting that the Chinese are not about ready to fund another Porkulus …

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