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Stimulus Money Flows Into Michigan: ACCESS Receives Funding for AmeriCorps
Federal stimulus cash is rolling into Metro Detroit, but it’s doing more than pave roads and hire cops: Millions more are pouring into the arts, small businesses and local schools.
Among the winners: Area beauty schools are sharing more than $1.6 million in Pell Grant money, a local mechanic is getting a $25,000 loan, and the alumni association of Detroit Kettering High School secured more than $200,000 from the Federal Communications Commission to help people make the conversion to digital television.
Michigan officials believe the state will receive about $18 billion in stimulus money over the next two years, with an estimated $7 billion funneled through road, education and health care programs. Another $11 billion represents tax cuts and credits for residents and businesses. Other programs include money for police, the arts and other nonprofits.
“Every corner of the state, every county in the state is getting a piece of the recovery funding,” said Megan Brown, spokeswoman for Gov. Jennifer Granholm.
Michael LaFaive, director of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, remains skeptical of the stimulus cash. He said bureaucrats cannot do a better job of spending taxpayers’ money than they would themselves.
He believes people would do a better job helping the economy recover if they didn’t have to pay for the government’s decisions with the stimulus money.
“We’ve been here before,” he said, recalling President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal that spent millions on the Works Progress Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corps and many other public agencies and programs.
While much of the money will fund road projects, the money is doing more than helping motorists and construction workers:
• The Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services in Dearborn is getting $611,000 for a nationwide AmeriCorps project, allowing it to employ 20 more people in its Arab-American Resource Corps.
• The Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival Corp. got $25,000, keeping musicians on the payroll.
• Liquid Manufacturing of Brighton, which produces and packages everything from beer to applesauce, got a cheaper loan, allowing it to expand.
“We are grateful for it,” said Peter Paisley of Liquid Manufacturing. The stimulus money will erase the estimated $20,000 in origination fees from a $1 million Small Business Administration loan, he said. The company used the money to add 100,000 square feet and boost payroll from 80 to 100.
“It’s huge,” Paisley added.
The money is targeted at short-term and long-term needs; at billions are being spent on health care, nutrition and housing; and on help for Michigan to develop future industries.
But the stimulus money is headed out in less obvious ways, too. Take the $25,000 grant to the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival Corp.
Executive Director Maury Okun said the organization was hammered by the economic downturn, with its three corporate sponsors — General Motors Co., Comerica Bank and GMAC — bowing out this year. That left a huge hole in the budget that has been partially filled by the stimulus grant.
“It’s enabling us to keep employing people,” Okun said. Without the stimulus money, there would have been fewer concerts — and fewer paid musicians.
The Detroit Public Schools, one of the biggest local recipients of stimulus cash, is set to receive more than $148 million, and many local districts and charter schools are getting money as well. Another $80 million is headed to students at universities, colleges and vocational schools in the area, with Wayne State and University of Michigan-Dearborn students getting a lot of the money.
Another recipient, the Everest Institute, which trains dental assistants, massage therapists and medical administrative assistants, is expecting more than $9 million for student Pell Grants. Vocational schools like those training beauticians and barbers are also getting a chunk of the Pell Grant money.
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