Left of College Station

Law Enforcement to Get $425,000

By Cassie Smith

From the Bryan-College Station Eagle

Brazos County law enforcement agencies will receive more than $425,000 from economic stimulus legislation signed by President Barack Obama last month.

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards announced Thursday that the money would be distributed through the Justice Assistance Grant program to the Brazos County Sheriff's Department and the College Station and Bryan police departments.

The funds can be used to hire officers, upgrade equipment and keep the streets safe, said Chris Chwastyk, Edwards' chief of staff.

Officials from all three agencies said they were grateful to Edwards for ensuring the funding for their agencies.

Brazos County Sheriff Chris Kirk said his department would use the $23,752 it will get in a responsible manner.

"It's been an unexpected amount of money," Kirk said, adding that he learned about it Thursday.

Kirk said the department might use the funds for technology projects, which have been funded through grant money.

Kirk, who was in Nevada for a sheriffs' convention Thursday, said he would have to review the guidelines for using the money before deciding how to spend it.

"We're excited about it," Kirk said.

The Bryan Police Department will receive $293,158 through the program, and Assistant Chief Wayland Rawls said officials would begin studying where to use the money.

"This is a lot of money, and we want to make sure we use it to the best use for the citizens of Bryan," Rawls said. "We believe if we properly use this money that we can make a drastic impact in crime."

Deputy Chief Peter Scheets said the funds probably would be applied toward equipment, technology and operations.

College Station Police Chief Michael Ikner said his department would likely use its $108,511 to purchase technology and equipment.

The funds will help the department in its mission of reducing crime and the fear of crime, improving the quality of life and building partnerships, he said.

It was unclear Thursday when the money would be disbursed.

POLICE FUNDING

Area law enforcement agencies will receive funding from the economic stimulus legislation

* Brazos County Sheriff's Department: $23,752.

* Bryan Police Department: $293,158.

* College Station Police Department: 108,511.

Published Friday, March 06, 2009

Dunnam pushes resolution critical of state transportation agency on eve of vote for spending federal stimulus road funds.

By Tim Woods (Tribune-Herald staff writer)

From the Waco Tribune-Herald

A resolution co-sponsored by Rep. Jim Dunnam critical of the way state transportation officials are deciding how to spend $1.2 billion in federal stimulus funds was withdrawn Wednesday amid criticism that its wording was too harsh.

The action on the floor of the state House came on the eve of an expected vote by the Texas Transportation Commission on disbursement of the federal transportation funds.

Dunnam, D-Waco, and state Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, have led the charge to sway commission members’ opinions and to bring greater transparency to the Texas Department of Transportation’s decision-making.

Since the Feb. 26 announcement of the department’s recommendations for the funds, which did not include any McLennan County projects, the two have sunk their teeth into the issue, speaking with commissioners and decision-makers, chairing hearings and helping introduce House resolutions.

Local officials requested more than $200 million to widen Interstate 35 north of Waco. That request was not granted on the transportation department’s preliminary list, though $121 million was recommended for an I-35 project to the south in Bell County.

Averitt said he has had daily conversations with commissioners and the department about McLennan County’s exclusion.

“While I am not yet satisfied with all of their answers, I recognize that managing our state’s transportation infrastructure is a difficult task, and I am confident that at the end of the process our discussions will be fruitful,” Averitt said.

Dunnam has headed a select committee looking at the disbursements and has criticized the department’s handling of the funds since last week’s announcement of the proposed projects.

On Wednesday, Dunnam co-sponsored a resolution, introduced in the House by Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, that sought more transparency and communication between the department and lawmakers in the department’s decision-making process.

The resolution, HR 709, was criticized by some House members for being too strongly critical of the transportation agency.

“The last line says that the House, by passing this today, declares that the failure of the (Texas Transportation) Commission and (transportation agency) to conduct the people’s business in a fair, open and accountable manner has lost them the confidence of the House and of the people of Texas,” Phil King, R-Weatherford, said at the hearing.

King added, “I’ve been one of the first ones to complain about TxDOT, but is that your intent today, to ask the Texas House to declare as a body that we believe that the commission has lost the confidence of the House and the people of the state of Texas? Is that really where we’re trying to go with this resolution? It’s a strong declaration.”

Dunnam, a lawyer, was delayed by an appeal hearing in Waco, so King’s question was fielded by Coleman, who repeatedly explained that the resolution was meant to improve communication between the House and the transportation department.

A representative asked Coleman and Dunnam, after he arrived, whether they believed the resolution would affect the commission’s vote today. The representative also asked why the vote on the resolution couldn’t be delayed until today so House members could read and discuss the document.

“On Friday, you’re going to get calls from constituents that say, ‘For some members, 70 percent of these funds were spent on toll roads. Why did you allow that to happen?’ ” Dunnam said. “They’re not going to blame TxDOT, they’re going to blame the members of this body. (They’ll ask), ‘Why did you allow them to spend money on projects that didn’t include our district? Or why did you allow them to spend this one-time federal money, 70 percent of it, on toll roads?’ ”

Dunnam added that the resolution was the only mechanism by which legislators could try to influence transportation officials before the meeting. This way, legislators could tell their constituents they tried to do something.

“If the members want to wait, we can wait, but TxDOT will have already voted,” he said.

After further debate, Coleman withdrew the resolution, citing the concern about its wording.

Dunnam said Wednesday that, aside from his concern about McLennan County being left in the cold, he worries the transportation department may not be complying with the stimulus act’s requirement that the funds be used in economically distressed areas.

“Our concern is that they’re not complying with the act, and that is a transparency and accountability issue because we’re going to have to testify to the federal government that we have complied with the recovery act,” Dunnam said. “They’ve received a great deal of criticism for that because it’s jeopardized the funds.”

U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., confirmed Dunnam’s concern Wednesday, sending him a letter that states, “The Recovery Act specifically requires that . . . states give priority to projects that are located in economically distressed areas.”

Dunnam said Wednesday evening that McLennan County is on the U.S. House’s list of economically distressed counties and that Bell County, to which the agency’s staff recommendations allot funds, is not.

Department spokesman Chris Lippincott has said the department has had discussions over several months with metropolitan planning organizations and conducted research into where the funds would be best allocated. The agency had to act quickly once the money was delivered to comply with the act’s requirements, he said.

Dunnam said he hopes the commission will delay today’s scheduled vote on the recommendations or at least strongly consider Oberstar’s words when awarding projects.

Published on Thursday, March 05, 2009

Waco-area legislators charge state process to disburse federal stimulus transportation funds political and not transparent.

By Tim Woods (Tribune-Herald staff writer)

From the Waco Tribune-Herald

State Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, worries that Texas Department of Transportation decision-makers might be considering more than just what is best for the state when allocating project funds.

Last week, TxDOT staff recommendations apparently left McLennan County without a dime of the $1.2 billion in federal stimulus funds the state received for transportation projects. Before the department’s recommendations, Waco-area officials had hoped to get $200 million in discretionary stimulus money to begin widening and rebuilding Interstate 35 from Lacy-Lakeview to near West.

The Texas Transportation Commission is supposed to vote Thursday on the projects TxDOT has proposed.

The TxDOT recommendations have caused frustration among Waco-area state legislators, who criticized the process as possibly influenced by politics and not transparent.

Averitt said the process may have become political, rather than simply a cost-benefit analysis. He referred to a statement by TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott to the Tribune-Herald last week, when Lippincott said that just because the stimulus money may fund 20 projects, that doesn’t necessarily mean that projects 21 through 25 get bumped up in priority.

“In my view, that’s a problem,” Averitt said Friday evening. “That tells me that there are other factors that weigh in the decisions of what projects get funded, rather than some methodical, analytical, financial analysis or cost-benefit analysis.”

He added, “I fear that the political factor gets too heavily involved sometimes.”

The senator said he doesn’t know for certain that TxDOT decisions are swayed by political pressure, “because I don’t know what their process is, but it raises the question.”

Lippincott later said the criteria were developed by local metropolitan planning organizations, then were evaluated by TxDOT staff.

“There was no way that this process would not yield fewer projects than there are needs,” Lippincott said.

The TxDOT spokesman also said that the process has only been politicized by the discussion since last week’s recommendations.

“The risk of this process becoming politicized increases with every day that it is attacked and questioned by people who don’t like the outcome,” Lippincott said.

Being in the dark about TxDOT’s decision-making process is something Averitt and state representatives Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, and Charles “Doc” Anderson, R-Waco, point to as a source of frustration.

“I think (lack of transparency) is somewhat systemic, and I think there will be some changes there at an organizational level,” Anderson said. He added, however, that he has had good experiences working with local TxDOT engineer Richard Skopik.

Dunnam was more biting in his criticism of the state agency.

“I don’t think it’s been good in any sense,” Dunnam said. “They’re very difficult to deal with. They’re very difficult to get information out of. When you try to get an explanation for rationale, you get a lot of double talk.”

Regarding last week’s TxDOT staff recommendations, Dunnam added, “(Thursday) they were saying that the Waco decisions were the result of the MPO, and I’m told that they told the MPO that the decisions were the result of a matrix that they use to prioritize projects, but they won’t give anybody a copy of the matrix. So, they have a great deal of expertise in double talk.”

Dunnam said he thinks TxDOT historically has acted “as though they are autonomous, with no level of responsibility to the taxpayers.”

Lippincott scoffed at the notion that TxDOT has been less than transparent.

“This has been the most open, transparent process that TxDOT has ever engaged in with the state’s metropolitan planning organizations,” Lippincott said. “These discussions have been going on for four months, and the people of Texas expect quick action with the stimulus funds that are being provided to our state.”

Commission to Decide

When the five-member transportation commission meets Thursday to decide on TxDOT’s recommendations, the legislators will be watching how carefully the commission examines those recommendations.

Lippincott said the committee has several options and is not required to either accept or reject any of the recommendations.

Though Dunnam stopped short of saying he sees the commission as simply a rubber stamp for TxDOT, he said “I don’t see them operating independently. I think we need to look at making them more accountable, and I think we should consider looking at a different structure for decision-making.”

Averitt said he knows all five members of the commission, three for quite some time, and thinks they will put great thought into the decision, but he again referred to what he sees as a lack of transparency.

“I think they deliberate,” Averitt said of the commission. “Here’s the problem, though. I don’t know what their process is. Nobody knows what their process is.”

Unless the commission opts to fund proposed projects in McLennan and other counties in Averitt’s district, the senator says he expects his constituents to continue making their voices heard.

Lippincott has acknowledged that TxDOT anticipated vocal criticism as soon as they saw the amount of funds weighed against the state’s needs.

“I represent 10 counties,” Averitt said. “Three of those counties, other than McLennan, had projects on the cusp of being funded, and none of them got done, (yet) some mega-projects in the Dallas-Fort Worth area got funded. So, yes, I’ve heard from folks in McLennan, Coryell, Johnson and Hood counties, and none of it is positive.”

Averitt added, “Everybody wants to know what’s going on, and, at this point, all I can say is we’re working on it.”

Published on Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Economic Stimulus Road Projects

From KBTX

We could see dozens of road projects popping up all over the Brazos Valley in the next few months.

 
The state has released a list of more than a dozen roads in our area that qualify for funding from the economic stimulus package.

As it stands now, that tentative list contains more than $60 million worth of improvements. These projects are spread out across the Brazos Valley. You'll find a full list by clicking on the document linked above this story.

The state has chosen these projects to review, because each could be started within the next few months. This way, the stimulus money would have an immediate impact on the economy.

The Texas Department of Transportation meets on Thursday to finalize the list. We'll have an update for you when they do.

Published on Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Legislature Urged to Kick in Money to Stave Off Nursing Shortage in Texas

By Cindy V. Culp (Tribune-Herald staff writer)

From the Waco Tribune-Herald

McLennan Community College President Dennis Michaelis has lost count of the number of times community members have asked him to pull strings to get a loved one into the school’s nursing program.

Since the program always has more qualified applicants than slots, Michaelis said he understands the requests. But all he can do is tell people to be patient.

“President Obama can’t get your daughter into the nursing program,” he joked.

Soon, however, the program may be able to accept more students. A broad-based group of Texas organizations is asking the Legislature to allot an extra $60 million for nursing education, and MCC would be in a prime position to get some of the money.

The group, which calls itself the Texas Nursing Workforce Shortage Coalition, has members representing more than 100 organizations. They include health care organizations, education entities and business groups.

The coalition’s message is that if Texas doesn’t increase the number of nurses it graduates each year, the state soon will find itself in a crisis. Already, elective surgeries sometimes must be postponed because of the shortage. Similarly, some hospitals have had to temporarily close their emergency rooms due to a lack of nurses, the coalition says.

Last year, the demand for full-time registered nurses in Texas exceeded the supply by 22,000, coalition figures show. By 2020, that gap will balloon to short of 70,000 if nursing education programs are not expanded, according to the coalition.

Plenty of Texans want to become nurses, coalition officials said. Last year alone, more than 8,000 qualified applicants were turned away from Texas nursing schools due to limited space.

The additional $60 million would allow schools to hire enough nursing faculty to nearly double the number of registered nurse graduates by 2013, coalition members said. Right now, there are about 7,000 graduates each year.

Having adequate faculty is the main barrier Texas schools face in expanding their nursing programs, said Elizabeth Sjoberg, associate general counsel for the Texas Hospital Association. Schools are required to have one faculty member for every 10 nursing students — a ratio aimed at keeping patients safe while students do hands-on work at health care facilities.

That ratio means major money is needed to achieve significant expansion, said Jennifer Banda, senior director of governmental relations for the Texas Hospital Association.

That is especially true because schools must offer high salaries to compete with private-sector paychecks for nurses, she said.

If the $60 million is approved, both public and private schools would be able to apply for a share.

“It’s sort of a jump-start to put the trajectory of nurses on par with the population growth in Texas,” Banda said.

If money becomes available, it would go a long way toward MCC’s goal of doubling the size of its nursing program, Michaelis said. That was one of the things the school promised when it asked the community to approve a $74.5 million bond package in 2006.

The school’s plan for doing so is slow, however, Michaelis said. The high staff-to-student ratio causes the program to lose $555,000 annually. Because of that, MCC can afford to hire only one additional nursing instructor per year, meaning it can add only 10 students annually.

The program currently graduates 120 nurses per year. The goal is to increase that to 240.

Increasing the nursing program’s size will directly benefit local residents, Michaelis said. A study the school did in preparation for the bond election found that 67 percent of local nurses graduated from MCC, he said.

Scott Connell, senior vice president for strategic development for the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce, said because of that, the chamber is a member of the nursing workforce coalition and passed a resolution last year calling for more nurse education funding.

“We could grow health care in the greater Waco area if we could just move people through the education process faster,” he said. “(Nursing positions) are good-paying jobs in an industry that’s continuing to grow.”

Published on Tuesday, February 24, 2009

B-CS Schools Await Stimulus Aid

By Janet Phelps

From the Bryan-College Station Eagle

Bryan and College Station schools could receive millions of dollars from the $787 billion economic stimulus package signed by President Barack Obama last week.

No one knows exactly how much money the districts will receive or when.

U.S. Rep. Chet Edwards said initial estimates from the Congressional Budget Office showed that Bryan schools would get about $6.8 million, while College Station schools would receive $2.4 million.

Local school officials said that the money would help but that it's not a long-term solution to school finance issues.

Bryan schools Chief Financial Officer Amy Drozd said the district had eliminated several teaching and staff positions through attrition over the past year because of financial difficulties.

"The problem with bringing positions back with this money is that this is temporary money. What do we do when the funds are over?" she said. "This is not an annual allotment for the next 10 years."

College Station schools Superintendent Eddie Coulson said the timeline for the money would create a difficult situation when it came to deciding how to spend it.

"We don't want to put something in place and have an ongoing expense if the money will not be ongoing," he said. "It's one of the questions we have, and it's one of the questions a lot of people have."

The money has been approved for use over two years through the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) and Title 1, federal programs that provide funding for special-needs and low-income students, respectively.

The Texas Education Agency is responsible for informing schools about how much money they will get and how it must be spent, but a spokeswoman for the Austin agency said last week that she didn't know when the information would be announced.

Once the amount is made public, Drozd said, a staff committee will likely meet to decide how to use the money most effectively.

"Most of this [money] is going to be instructional, so it's really going to come down to: To have the most effect on students, how do we spend it?" she said.

She said the district's special-needs services could use the help. That department has lost several teaching positions over the past year because of budget cuts, she said.

And in low-income campuses, which qualify for Title 1 funds, Drozd said, the money will have a visible impact.

"What happens is usually your higher at-risk campuses require more services to get [students] on level [with the rest of the district]. So any time we can get more money on those particular campuses, it's helpful," she said.

Coulson said the money would be spent based on the district's identified priorities within the two programs. That could mean adding programs, staff positions, staff development or resources for teachers, he said.

"Like we would with anything, we will look at what we've deemed as our priorities in terms of what our needs are, then look at what the parameters are and align those. Once we've aligned those, we will move forward."

Both Drozd and Coulson said they would use the money in whatever way would most directly benefit students. Bryan schools' budget this year is $125.3 million, while College Station schools' is $97.7 million.

Edwards said he estimated that the stimulus money would create or save 8,400 jobs in the 17th Congressional District.

"A number of those jobs will be in the Brazos Valley," the Waco Democrat said.

Ultimately, Edwards said, he didn't know how the money would affect school districts but was hoping for the best.

"At worst, I hope it allows them to keep people employed who might otherwise have been fired," he said. "At best, I hope it will allow them to increase the number of teachers and staff and, most importantly, fund their highest-priority needs."

Published Sunday, February 22, 2009

Your Daily Politics Video Blog: The economic stimulus package has been signed into law by President Obama, guaranteeing billions of dollars to individual states. Most governors are taking the money, but some Republican governors are refusing it in opposition to the stimulus package. And still others oppose the stimulus, but are taking the money anyway, because hey, it's free money. The question in today's Sunday Show Roundup: who wants it more?

Professors Discuss Economic Crisis

A&M Society Ask Questions About Stimulus Plan, Auto Bailout

By: Calli Turner

 From the Texas A&M University Battalion

Texas A&M economics professors Kishore Gawande and Dennis Jansen fielded questions on the economic crisis Wednesday in the Robert H. and Judy Ley Allen Building.

The professors were participants in the A&M Economics Society's Financial Crisis Panel Discussion.

One of the issue that was discussed was the stimulus plan.

"The stimulus, like any fiscal stimulus, is supposed to create jobs. It's not as great a plan as it's supposed to be, it's not as deep as it's supposed to be, it's not as big as it's supposed to be," Gawande said.

He said the economic situation is not like the Great Depression for a couple of reasons. He said during that time, there was a deficiency in demand, but the rest of the economy was OK.

"The problem right now is the consumers are so heavily indebted as a group that they are not willing to spend," he said. "It's a tough time for this economy, there are no very easy answers."

Jansen said some think that an increase in job development indicates an upward turn in the economy.

"I would be a little bit skeptical about how well the proposed package or actual package will work to create new jobs," he said.

"Most economists will say [new jobs] can never be measured actually," Jansen said.

Gawande said the focus needs to be placed on banking systems because many banks may be close to or even at bankruptcy but are still operating.

"You can't let these guys just operate when they're bankrupt, they'll do all kinds of crazy things," he said.

But Gawande said banks that do work are needed.

The Federal Reserve System was noted as one of these banks.

"The Fed has been out there basically discounting all kinds of assets basically trying to conduct an open market of sorts," Gawande said. "It actually has succeeded, but it's not clear how much lending is coming from that."

Gawande said one shortcoming of the stimulus package was the amount of time spent creating it.

"In terms of the fiscal stimulus plan that was packaged and planned, perhaps we were in a rush to do that," he said. "I think it scores a lot of political points, but not so much for economic growth."

Gawande said he had two graduate students who bought houses with zero income, and that this was an example of how the economy ended up in this situation.

He said the lenders are willing to make the loans to potential home buyers with no credit, because they're not buying the risk, they're selling it out.

"They will sell it to Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac," he said. "Junk is being bought on the market by very reputable [companies]."

He said the companies are doing this because Congress has decided everyone should buy a house.

"They were probably happy to do it in the ways that were being described, but they were being instructed by Congress to do this," Gawande said.

Jansen said the auto bailout was not a good idea.

"I do not think the U.S. car companies have been in good shape, maybe Ford being the exception, for a long time," he said. "They do not meet the market test on quality or price."

He said bankruptcy is the best option and that the auto brands, such as General Motors, would continue to exist.

"If you let them go through bankruptcy, then these problems will maybe be taken care of," Jansen said.

Gawande said he agreed with Jansen, but he did like one aspect of the auto bailout: the requirement placed upon automakers to produce an electric car.

"This is a long time coming," he said.

Dylan Kluth, the society president and a senior economics major, said the society will have more panels this semester discussing health care and energy.

Kluth said the society worked with their adviser A&M professor Brit Grosskopf to coordinate the event.

The economics society consists of economics and non-economics majors. Kluth said he hopes the panels will be understood by all in attendance, no matter what major or background.

"Our goals are to advance social and economic thought," he said.

Published on Thursday, February 19, 2009
 

In this sneak peek from "Inside the Meltdown," FRONTLINE examines the final hours leading up to the deal between Bear Stearns and JP Morgan, and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's attempts to discourage moral hazard.

In "Inside the Meltdown," airing Tuesday, February 17 at 9 pm on PBS, FRONTLINE investigates the causes of the worst economic crisis in 70 years and how the government responded. The film chronicles the inside stories of the Bear Stearns deal, Lehman Brothers' collapse, the propping up of insurance giant AIG, and the $700 billion bailout. Inside the Meltdown examines what Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke didn't see, couldn't stop and haven't been able to fix.