On the Federal Bailout Money

Hi friends,

You may have seen the article in the Spokesman-Review over the weekend on what the Federal Stimulus Package could mean for school districts here in the area; the figure cited for Medical Lake was almost $931,000, which would be stimulating indeed. There are a couple of things to remember, though:

1. That figure above is spread out over two years, weighted more towards year 1 ($574k) than year 2 ($356k).
   
   
2. Right now it's only theoretical money. Some would argue that even after they write the check it's still only theoretical money, but that's an economics argument for another day.
   
   
3. Given the vicissitudes of federal funding, any money coming out of the bailout could still be a long ways off from trickling down to us here in Medical Lake. Consider the Impact Aide money that we're already supposed to get; it's been known to run two years behind schedule.
   
   
4. The stimulus bill passed the House, but it still has to wend its way through the Senate, and then a conference committee, before it can find itself on President Obama's desk.
   
   
5. It's not a blank check. You can read here the allocations that are made to various programs; the first year, for example, provides money for construction, while both years have additional alotments for Title and IDEA spending. That narrows the scope of where the money can go.

There are currently a ton of moving parts to our monetary situation that I'm keeping an eye on right now: the discussion over Governor Gregoire's proposed budget, the next revenue forecast for the state (due out in three weeks), the state Senate budget proposal (by the end of the month), this pot of Federal money, the other pot of money from DC going towards construction projects, along with a couple of different bills in the Legislature that would impact us here at home. If you have any questions about any of it, please feel free to call me--being up-to-date on these issues is what I'm here for!

With thanks,

--Ryan--