Economic stimulus seems to be on everybody’s minds lately…

For Immediate Press Release,

The 26 LD Democrats proudly announces their upcoming monthly April 7th meeting. Featured Speakers will be Kitsap County Commissioners Charlotte Garrido and Josh Brown speaking on the current State of the County. How has the short fall in taxes impacted us? What can we expect from the Obama bailout package? Also, are we in Kitsap County going to be able to attract "Green Jobs"?

Also on the agenda will be Fire Chief Wayne Center presenting information about upcoming the fire levy.

The date

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The Puget Sound Regional Council executive board today settled on how to divide $214 million in federal stimulus funds for transit and transportation projects in the region.

The full list is below, but for those who want to know what’s in it for us (us being Pierce County), here is the upshot:

Transportation funding:

Transit funding:

Reporter Melissa Santos is covering the meeting and will have more later.

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Officials from throughout Pierce County have agreed to change the list of local road projects they want to receive economic stimulus funding.

The Pierce County arm of the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) voted Tuesday night to drop a paving project in unincorporated Pierce County from its list of recommended projects and slightly reduce the amount of money that would go toward a Port of Tacoma project.

The change allows Eatonville’s Rural Town Center project to move onto the list of projects moving forward to the PSRC, which will make the final decision Thursday on how to distribute $78 million in funds from the federal stimulus package.

"I feel good and bad," Eatonville Mayor Tom Smallwood said Tuesday. "I feel good because we’re getting a share. I feel bad for the other agencies in the county."

Two local projects remained unchanged on the list of recommendations: Puyallup’s Shaw Road extension and Orting’s State Route 162 Rechannelization.

The PSRC executive board still must approve the list of projects before they can receive funding.

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Another day, another stimulus program rollout. Today it’s $2 billion for Justice Assistance Grants (JAG). Washington’s share is $36.7 million, which will be split 60-40 between state and local governments.

The list of eligible programs is wide-ranging: “hiring and support for law enforcement officers; multijurisdictional drug and gang task forces; crime prevention and domestic violence programs; and courts, corrections, treatment, and justice information sharing initiatives,” according to the press release.

The local money is being divvied up using a formula based on population and violent crime statistics. This seems to help the City of Tacoma, which is eligible for nearly $1.4 million. Meanwhile, Pierce County gets about half that. If it were based only on short-term need, you could argue that the county, which is having a budget crisis and runs the jail, sheriff’s patrols and part of the court system ought to have a bigger share. Tacoma is one of the few local governments that seems to be weathering the economic storm.

Here are the eligibility numbers for local jurisdictions.

TACOMA CITY	       $1,394,464
PIERCE COUNTY	         $773,319
LAKEWOOD CITY	         $340,124
FEDERAL WAY CITY	 $211,276
AUBURN CITY	         $185,913
PUYALLUP CITY	          $83,106
UNIVERSITY PLACE CITY	  $63,179
SUMNER CITY	          $32,835
FIFE CITY	          $27,853
BONNEY LAKE CITY	  $26,268
EDGEWOOD CITY	          $12,228
GIG HARBOR CITY	          $11,322
FIRCREST CITY	          $10,643
YELM CITY	          $10,190
Local statewide total $14,304,690
State of Washington   $22,401,901
Total for Washington  $36,706,591

Click here to see the entire spreadsheet for the state.

We’re working on a story for tomorrow’s paper. Key questions:

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