Strategizing a stimulus plan may prove complex:
In one of the first internal struggles of the incoming Obama administration, environmentalists and smart-growth advocates are trying to shift the priorities of the economic stimulus plan that will be introduced in Congress next month away from allocating tens of billions of dollars to highways, bridges and other traditional infrastructure spending to more projects that create “green-collar” jobs.
The debate has centered on two competing principles in the evolving plan: the desire to spend money on what President-elect Barack Obama calls “shovel-ready projects,” such as highway and bridge construction, vs. spending on more environmentally conscious projects, such as grids for wind and solar power.
The key question is whether the spending is stimulus alone or whether some real residual benefits should be derived from the spending. If the stimulus is just a stimulus there probably isn’t a more efficient way to implement it than a payroll tax holiday. If we’re to derive real residual benefits, it may take considerably more planning (which will reduce the effectiveness of the stimulus). As I’ve noted before, many of the “shovel-ready projects” on the governors’ wish lists aren’t much more than expensive boondoggles that the state legislatures didn’t think were worth funding on their own merits.
Reminds me of the “project triangle” and the many often humorous signs I used to see in stores when I was younger.