From the Designing the New West Conference

Transportation Director: Montana Is Ready To Spend Stimulus Money

By Greg Lemon, 4-20-09

The Montana Department of Transportation is receiving $211 million extra dollars from the federal government through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for projects this year, says MDT director Jim Lynch.

On a typical year Montana can expect about $300 million for transportation projects from the federal government. With the extra ARRA money, the state will have more than $500 million to spend this year.

“(Congress) wanted to get it out into the states and out into contractors hands as quickly as possible,” he said.

The ARRA is largely misunderstood by the general public, Lynch said. At its heart, it’s about jobs.

“Don’t lose sight of what this program is,” he told the audience at NewWest.Net’s Designing the New West conference in Bozeman. “This program is a jobs program – it’s an economic development program.”

The buzz word nationally is “shovel ready,” but actually, that means projects where money can be obligated quickly, Lynch said.

Under the law, 50 percent of the money given to the state must be obligated by June 2009. The rest of the money must be obligated by Feb. 17, 2010.

Obligated means the state will have projects bid and contractors secured, he said.

If states don’t have their money obligated, it will go back to a federal pool and issued to states that can get the money on the ground quickly, Lynch said.

“We have a lot of projects that are ready to go,” he said. “This could be very difficult for some states to meet, and we’re hoping very selfishly that that happens.”

In Montana the money is going to be spread to projects around the state and not just focused on one area. The projects have to be completed within three years, he said.

Transportation infrastructure is a good investment and Lynch is hopeful that Congress will see how much this extra funding will benefit communities around the state.

The ARRA will come with strings. The federal government is going to watch closely how each dollar is spent. They want to ensure the projects are necessary and stimulate job and economic growth. If that doesn’t happen, the state would have to give the money back, Lynch said.

“This is going to be the most watched program second to the Super Bowl by the time it’s over.”

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