Daniels: State will spend stimulus money quickly to create jobs
INDIANAPOLIS – Indiana will spend federal stimulus money quickly to spur job growth once that money reaches the state, Gov. Mitch Daniels said Wednesday.
Daniels said Indiana would get between $4 and $5 billion under the federal stimulus package the U.S. House passed Tuesday. That package gives the governor authority to decide how to spend much of those billions.
Spending the money quickly on one-time programs that will create jobs for Hoosiers, Daniels said, will be his priority as he determines how to spend the stimulus money.
Before it reaches the state, the federal stimulus package currently carrying a price tag of more than $800 billion must also pass the U.S. Senate. Then, the House and Senate must iron out their differences before the package goes to President Obama to sign.
But with unemployment rising rapidly, Daniels said it’s critical the state be ready to spend stimulus dollars to create jobs as soon as it reaches the state’s bank account. Daniels named roadway construction, clean water projects and weatherization as programs he’d direct stimulus money toward.
He said the Indiana Department of Transportation is nailing down a list of already-planned projects, and will begin accepting bids on some of those projects as early as Monday.
“Our plan is to be out of the gate as fast as any state … in getting these projects started,” Daniels said.
Of Indiana’s share of the stimulus plan the House passed Tuesday, more than $1 billion would go straight to school corporations. Daniels urged schools to spend their money on one-time projects and not to rely on those higher spending levels and build the money into their base budgets. He said the state couldn’t sustain that level of education funding after the stimulus money dried up.
