By everyone’s account, no one knows how much federal stimulus money could come to West Michigan, but some estimates say that when it gets here it could help create 22,000 jobs. Education, special ed funding and more could jumpstart the area’s economy and help get the future back on track.
According to excerpts from the story:
How much of that $787 billion does Michigan get? The White House claims 109,000 jobs will be generated in the state by the stimulus bill signed Tuesday by President Barack Obama, including more than 22,000 in West Michigan.
The funds include $13 million for Grand Rapids metropolitan road projects, $7 million to expand The Rapid bus operations center and what is expected to be millions of dollars to rebuild Grand Rapids schools. Additional millions are expected for everything from home weatherization to water and sewer improvement to law enforcement.
Michigan is slated to get about $7 billion, including $2.3 billion for Medicaid, $845 million for road and bridge work, $1.3 billion for "fiscal stabilization" for education, $500 million for early childhood education, $419 million for special education and $279 million for weatherization.
"We are trying to meet urgent needs," said Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell, who expects about $4 million from the package to upgrade crumbling city streets.
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