Another Stimulas Story

[Raymond Little]

Seems that shovel ready includes replacing expensive engines on high dollar sportfishing vessels owned by the same folks our Prez thinks are not paying their fair share.

Readem and Weep Regards,

http://www.carolinajournal.com/artic...y.html?id=8032

[T. Mac]

Stimulus successes abound everywhere!
http://www.sacbee.com/2011/09/01/387...ylink=misearch

[Gerry Clinchy]

So the govt spent about $510K to help 14 businesses ... some of which were going to inject $ into the economy anyhow (the one boat-owner said that he would have needed an engine rebuild anyhow), though would likely have been less than the $1,000,000 this program injected into the economy.

Wonder how many of those boats are still afloat after Irene?

[Raymond Little]

Doubt they suffered any damage, captains usually head inland when storms approach.
Boats like these are owned by private individuals and hired out to pay the rent. Repowering is a normal occurance and usually happens when engines reach a predetermined number of hours. If you can afford the boat you usually can afford the upkeep. Leave it to those evil rich folks to find a loophole to exploit in da Stimlus.

[Eric Johnson]

Some of the blame has to go to state government....particularly the governors.

I had two "shovel ready" projects. One could have been bid within 7 days and ready for letting 30 days later. It was an energy-reduction project that would have paid for itself in about 14 years. The usual limit on these is 20 years.

The other project was even worse. It would have taken about 90 days to contract signing. It was an energy project as well but on a really grand scale. The project would have paid for itself in less than 5 years and yielded more than $5 million in savings every year thereafter. We would have re-vamped the energy/utility system for an entire hospital campus .... boilers, air handlers, cooling towers, lighting, water towers, control system, etc, etc.

Instead, our Gov used the money that came under this act to fund an alternate energy plant (sugar beets for gasohol) that still isn't running and likely will not ever be. He put $25+ million into the plant and it's still just a cleared field with a deteriorating sign.

Eric