Stimulus Plan and Public Housing

Economic Stimulus Legislation - Housing Included Section 502, NSP, Other Housing Funds Included in Final Stimulus Bill. February 17, 2009. President Barack Obama signed into Law H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Revitalization Act of 2009, as passed by the Congress on February 13. The final bill would fund $1 billion in direct Section 502 loans and $10.472 billion in Section 502 guaranteed loans, as well as numerous HUD programs and rural community facilities, business, and water/wastewater programs. Details are in the table below. The final bill requires that at least 10 percent of the spending for each of the RD community facilities, business, and water/waste programs in the bill must be allocated to persistent poverty counties. These are defined as counties with poverty rates of 20 percent or more in the 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial censuses. (This does not apply to Sec. 502 funding.) List of persistent poverty counties (PDF) Updated February 19. Program H.R. 1 Final version USDA Sec. 502 direct $1 billion USDA Sec. 502 guaranteed $10.472 billion HUD HOME $2.25 billion HUD CDBG $1 billion HUD Native Amer. Block Grants $510 million HUD Public Hsg. Capital Fund $4 billion HUD Neighbrhd Stablztn Prog. $2 billion HUD Emergency Shelter Grants Prog. $1.5 billion HUD Lead Hazard Reduction $100 million HUD SHOP 0 Energy refrofits for HUD-assisted rental housing $250 million USDA Rural Cmnty. Facilities $1.171 billion loans $63 million grants USDA Rural Water and Waste Loans and Grants $2.82 billion loans $968 million grants USDA Rural Business Loans and Grants $2.99 billion loans $20 million grants The following table summarizes the differences between the House and Senate bills regarding assisted housing spending. Program H.R. 1 passed by House 1/28/09 Collins-Nelson Amdt. in Senate 2/9/09 USDA Sec. 502 direct $4 billion $1 billion USDA Sec. 502 guaranteed $18 billion $10.5 billion HUD HOME $1.5 billion $2.25 billion* HUD CDBG $1 billion 0 HUD Native Amer. Block Grants $500 million $510 million HUD Public Hsg. Capital Fund $5 billion $5 billion HUD Neighbrhd Stablztn Prog. $4.19 billion 0 HUD Emergency Shelter Grants Prog. $1.5 billion $1.5 billion HUD Lead Hazard Reduction $100 million $100 million HUD SHOP $10 million 0 HUD Proj.-Based Section 8** $2.5 billion $2.25 billion USDA Rural Broadband $6 billion $3.3 billion USDA Rural Cmnty. Facilities $1.2 billion *** USDA Rural Water and Waste Loans and Grants $3.8 billion $3.8 billion USDA Rural Business Loans and Grants $2 billion $3 billion Homebuyer tax credit 0 $35 billion A more detailed table is available on the National Housing Conference's Open House blog.

Obama Has 'Solid' Housing Plan

The Wall Street Journal reports, The Obama administration this week will announce a "good, solid" plan with the goal of stemming mortgage foreclosures and putting a floor under falling real estate prices, a senior White House aide said on Sunday.

David Axelrod speaks on "Meet the Press." Mr. Axelrod pressed the Obama administration's housing plan on the Sunday morning talk shows.

Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," senior adviser David Axelrod said the plan that President Barack Obama plans to announce on Wednesday will aim to stem foreclosures, provide immediate help to homeowners who are "right on the edge" of foreclosure, and ultimately help in "raising home values that have been plummeting."

Mr. Obama plans to unveil his housing plan during a visit to Phoenix. As part of his swing through western states, he is set to stop in Denver Tuesday, when he will sign the $787 billion economic-stimulus plan just passed by Congress.

Mr. Axelrod provided few details of the housing plan, but said a government investment of $50 billion to $100 billion to fund foreclosure prevention "is obviously a necessary part." He promised that the plan would contain "a lot of aspects."

In a later appearance on NBC-TV's "Meet the Press," he cited a letter Mr. Obama recently read from an Arizona homeowner as an illustration of the problem. "He showed me a letter the other day that was just heart wrenching from a woman in Arizona whose husband lost his job," Mr. Axelrod said. "He now has a job that's one-third the pay and they're really struggling to make their payments and meet their responsibilities. And she was emblematic of people all over this country."

One likely element of the plan would reduce Americans' payments on troubled mortgages, people familiar with the discussions said late last week, possibly through a cut in the interest rate, the costs of which would be shared by the government and mortgage servicers. Government officials would make the reduction available to people who are at risk of defaulting. A loan-modification program at government-backed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac currently calls for holding monthly housing-related payments to 38% of pretax income. The new formula is likely to be as low as about 31%, according to some people.

In addition, the administration is expected to endorse a plan to allow judges to modify mortgages during bankruptcy proceedings in some circumstances, a move long opposed by the mortgage industry. And it could push measures that would remove some contractual obstacles that hinder mortgage servicers from modifying troubled loans. Pending any announcement, the country's three largest mortgage lenders are putting a temporary halt on foreclosures. MORE HERE

State by State Stimulus Plan Analysis

The American Progress.org is reporting on the House and Senate version of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act. They are reporting on the scale and breadth necessary to begin tackling the economic chaos that President Barack Obama has inherited from former President George W. Bush. The various spending programs and tax cuts contained in the bills will help communities across the entire nation. These maps show state-by-state allocations for the aspects of the plan for which we could establish where the money is going. This constitutes 66 percent of the total cost of the package for the House plan and 68 percent for the Senate plan. The maps also show the proportion of the funds that will help each state balance their budgets rather than providing additional funding for specific programs.

These state and local funds include direct tax cuts for working families; increased unemployment insurance and food stamps to help those most in need; new funding to equip the education system for the 21st century; additional funds for existing clean energy programs; state-level infrastructure projects; and assistance that is necessary to protect vital services such as Medicaid. More HERE

Who is getting the money? The Stimulus Plan - State by State

Earlier this week the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, estimated how much money in the House of Representatives’ $825 billion Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act (passed yesterday) would go to each state.

Today, Nicholas Beaudrot, blogging for The American Prospect, used those estimates to calculate how many dollars per capita would go to each state:

By this analysis, Rhode Island — which in December had the second highest unemployment rate of any state, at 10 percent — gets the most money per person. Utah gets the least amount of money per capita; by comparison, the state had a relatively low unemployment rate of 4.3 percent. (Alaska and Hawaii seem to have been left out of the calculations.)

States Plan Their Own Stimulus Package to Aid Small Businesses

As reported by Raymund Flandez at the Wall Street Journal, while the economic-stimulus package is being hammered out in Congress, some states are proposing or enacting their own stimulus packages, with many of the plans targeted toward small-business development.

Compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures through various media and government reports, the chart below lists several states with stimulus plans that could potentially help small-business owners:

Arizona: In response to tight fiscal conditions, Arizona’s stimulus plan focuses on tax incentives, rather than public-works projects. Changes and increases to the enterprise-zone program, which includes tax incentives on business property and income, have also been proposed.

Colorado: A pending Senate bill would create a loan fund for small business. A pending House bill would give small businesses dealing with clean energy technology certain tax breaks. Republicans are pushing to phase out the personal property tax for business, which is a big accounting headache for small firms. Gov. Bill Ritter Jr. wants to start a $5 million fund called the Colorado Credit Reserve, which should back banks that give small-business loans.

Florida: The main component of Florida’s stimulus program is loans to small businesses. Small businesses with 10 to 99 employees would be eligible for 2% interest rate loans of up to $250,000 to be used in expansion for their enterprise. This could include capital purchases, employee training and new position salaries.

Maryland: Gov. Martin O’Malley, in his state of the state, said his proposed budget plan includes $70.3 million for business-development programs that assist small and minority businesses, plus $15 million for small-business health insurance.

Minnesota: Gov. Tim Pawlenty is calling for business tax cuts that includes tax-free zones for companies that create “green jobs.” He is also pushing for a 25% refundable tax credit for small-business owners who reinvest in their business. In addition, he wants a 100% exemption on sales tax for equipment purchases by all small businesses.

New Jersey: Stimulus plan includes grants and tax incentives for small businesses to hire and expand. Small businesses that hire and retain a new employee for at least one year are eligible for grants of $3,000 per position. In addition for the grants, small businesses may be eligible for sales tax credits for capital investments over $5,000.

Link to story HERE

How the economic stimulus plan will affect Americans

An examination of how the economic stimulus plan will affect Americans.

Source: AP

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Taxes:

The recovery package has tax breaks for families that send a child to college, purchase a new car, buy a first home or make the ones they own more energy efficient.

Millions of workers can expect to see about $13 extra in their weekly paychecks, starting around June, from a new $400 tax credit to be doled out through the rest of the year. Couples would get up to $800. In 2010, the credit would be about $7.70 a week, if it is spread over the entire year.

The $1,000 child tax credit would be extended to more low-income families that don't make enough money to pay income taxes, and poor families with three or more children will get an expanded Earned Income Tax Credit.

Middle-income and wealthy taxpayers will be spared from paying the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was designed 40 years ago to make sure wealthy taxpayers pay at least some tax, but was never indexed for inflation. Congress fixes it each year, usually in the fall.

First-time homebuyers who purchase their homes before Dec. 1 would be eligible for an $8,000 tax credit, and people who buy new cars before the end of the year can write off the sales taxes.

Homeowners who add energy-efficient windows, furnaces and air conditioners can get a tax credit to cover 30 percent of the costs, up to a total of $1,500. College students — or their parents — are eligible for tax credits of up to $2,500 to help pay tuition and related expenses in 2009 and 2010.

Those receiving unemployment benefits this year wouldn't pay any federal income taxes on the first $2,400 they receive.

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Health insurance:

Many workers who lose their health insurance when they lose their jobs will find it cheaper to keep that coverage while they look for work.

Right now, most people working for medium and large employers can continue their coverage for 18 months under the COBRA program when they lose their job. It's expensive, often over $1,000 a month, because they pay the share of premiums once covered by their employer as well as their own share from the old group plan.

Under the stimulus package, the government will pick up 65 percent of the total cost of that premium for the first nine months.

Lawmakers initially proposed to help workers from small companies, too, who don't generally qualify for COBRA coverage. But that fell through. The idea was to have Washington pay to extend Medicaid to them.

COBRA applies to group plans at companies employing at least 20 people. The subsidies will be offered to those who lost their jobs from Sept. 1 to the end of this year.

Those who were put out of work after September but didn't elect to have COBRA coverage at the time will have 60 days to sign up.

The plan offers $87 billion to help states administer Medicaid. That could slow or reverse some of the steps states have taken to cut the program.

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Infrastructure:

Highways repaved for the first time in decades. Century-old waterlines dug up and replaced with new pipes. Aging bridges, stressed under the weight of today's SUVs, reinforced with fresh steel and concrete.

But the $90 billion is a mere down payment on what's needed to repair and improve the country's physical backbone. And not all economists agree it's an effective way to add jobs in the long term, or stimulate the economy.

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Energy:

Homeowners looking to save energy, makers of solar panels and wind turbines and companies hoping to bring the electric grid into the computer age all stand to reap major benefits.

The package contains more than $42 billion in energy-related investments from tax credits to homeowners to loan guarantees for renewable energy projects and direct government grants for makers of wind turbines and next-generation batteries.

There's a 30 percent tax credit of up to $1,500 for the purchase of a highly efficient residential air conditioners, heat pumps or furnaces. The credit also can be used by homeowners to replace leaky windows or put more insulation into the attic. About $300 million would go for rebates to get people to buy efficient appliances.

The package includes $20 billion aimed at "green" jobs to make wind turbines, solar panels and improve energy efficiency in schools and federal buildings. It includes $6 billion in loan guarantees for renewable energy projects as well as tax breaks or direct grants covering 30 percent of wind and solar energy investments. Another $5 billion is marked to help low-income homeowners make energy improvements.

About $11 billion goes to modernize and expand the nation's electric power grid and $2 billion to spur research into batteries for future electric cars.

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Schools:

A main goal of education spending in the stimulus bill is to help keep teachers on the job.

Nearly 600,000 jobs in elementary and secondary schools could be eliminated by state budget cuts over the next three years, according to a study released this past week by the University of Washington. Fewer teachers means higher class sizes, something that districts are scrambling to prevent.

The stimulus sets up a $54 billion fund to help prevent or restore state budget cuts, of which $39 billion must go toward kindergarten through 12th grade and higher education. In addition, about $8 billion of the fund could be used for other priorities, including modernization and renovation of schools and colleges, though how much is unclear, because Congress decided not to specify a dollar figure.

The Education Department will distribute the money as quickly as it can over the next couple of years.

And it adds $25 billion extra to No Child Left Behind and special education programs, which help pay teacher salaries, among other things.

This money may go out much more slowly; states have five years to spend the dollars, and they have a history of spending them slowly. In fact, states don't spend all the money; they return nearly $100 million to the federal treasury every year.

The stimulus bill also includes more than $4 billion for the Head Start and Early Head Start early education programs and for child care programs.

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National debt:

One thing about the president's $790 billion stimulus package is certain: It will jack up the federal debt.

Whether or not it succeeds in producing jobs and taming the recession, tomorrow's taxpayers will end up footing the bill.

Forecasters expect the 2009 deficit — for the budget year that began last Oct 1 — to hit $1.6 trillion including new stimulus and bank-bailout spending. That's about three times last year's shortfall.

The torrents of red ink are being fed by rising federal spending and falling tax revenues from hard-hit businesses and individuals.

The national debt — the sum of all annual budget deficits — stands at $10.7 trillion. Or about $36,000 for every man, woman and child in the U.S.

Interest payments alone on the national debt will near $500 billion this year. It's already the fourth-largest federal expenditure, after Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security and defense.

This will affect us all directly for years, as well as our children and possibly grandchildren, in higher taxes and probably reduced government services. It will also force continued government borrowing, increasingly from China, Japan, Britain, Saudi Arabia and other foreign creditors.

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Environment:

The package includes $9.2 billion for environmental projects at the Interior Department and the Environmental Protection Agency. The money would be used to shutter abandoned mines on public lands, to help local governments protect drinking water supplies, and to erect energy-efficient visitor centers at wildlife refuges and national parks.

The Interior Department estimates that its portion of the work would generate about 100,000 jobs over the next two years.

Yet the plan will only make a dent in the backlog of cleanups facing the EPA and the long list of chores at the country's national parks, refuges and other public lands. It would be more like a down payment.

When it comes to national parks, the plan sets aside $735 million for road repairs and maintenance. But that's a fraction of the $9 billion worth of work waiting for funding.

At EPA, the payout is $7.2 billion. The bulk of the money will help local communities and states repair and improve drinking water systems and fund projects that protect bays, rivers and other waterways used as sources of drinking water.

The rest of EPA's cut — $800 million — will be used to clean up leaky gasoline storage tanks and the nation's hazardous waste sites.

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Police:

The stimulus bill includes plenty of green for those wearing blue.

The compromise bill doles out more than $3.7 billion for police programs, much of which is set aside for hiring new officers.

The law allocates $2 billion for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, a program that has funded drug task forces and things such as prisoner rehabilitation and after-school programs.

An additional $1 billion is set aside to hire local police under the Community Oriented Policing Services program. The program, known as COPS grants, paid the salaries of many local police officers and was a "modest contributor" to the decline in crime in the 1990s, according to a 2005 government oversight report.

Both programs had all been eliminated during the Bush administration.

The bill also includes $225 million for general criminal justice grants for things such as youth mentoring programs, $225 million for Indian tribe law enforcement, $125 million for police in rural areas, $100 million for victims of crimes, $50 million to fight Internet crimes against children and $40 million in grants for law enforcement along the Mexican border.

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Higher Education:

The maximum Pell Grant, which helps the lowest-income students attend college, would increase from $4,731 currently to $5,350 starting July 1 and $5,550 in 2010-2011. That would cover three-quarters of the average cost of a four-year college. An extra 800,000 students, or about 7 million, would now get Pell funding.

The stimulus also increases the tuition tax credit to $2,500 and makes it 40 percent refundable, so families who don't earn enough to pay income tax could still get up to $1,000 in extra tuition help.

Computer expenses will now be an allowable expense for 529 college savings plans.

The final package cut $6 billion the House wanted to spend to kick-start building projects on college campuses. But parts of the $54 billion state stabilization fund — with $39 billion set aside for education — can be used for modernizing facilities.

There's also an estimated $15 billion for scientific research, much of which will go to universities. Funding for the National Institutes of Health includes $1.5 billion set aside for university research facilities.

Altogether, the package spends an estimated $32 billion on higher education.

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The Poor:

More than 37 million Americans live in poverty, and the vast majority of them are in line for extra help under the giant stimulus package. Millions more could be kept from slipping into poverty by the economic lifeline.

People who get food stamps — 30 million and growing — will get more. People drawing unemployment checks — nearly 5 million and growing — would get an extra $25, and keep those checks coming longer. People who get Supplemental Security Income — 7 million poor Americans who are elderly, blind or disabled — would get one-time extra payments of $250.

Many low-income Americans also are likely to benefit from a trifecta of tax credits: expansions to the existing Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit, and a new refundable tax credit for workers. Taken together, the three credits are expected to keep more than 2 million Americans from falling into poverty, including more than 800,000 children, according to the private Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The package also includes a $3 billion emergency fund to provide temporary assistance to needy families. In addition, cash-strapped states will get an infusion of $87 billion for Medicaid, the government health program for poor people, and that should help them avoid cutting off benefits to the needy.

Link to Story

Obama Will Sign Stimulus Bill

The Washington Post is reporting that President Obama will sign the $787 billion economic stimulus plan in Denver on Tuesday, the White House said today, as he continues his efforts to communicate directly to the American public about the economic crisis.

Obama had already announced a trip to Colorado and Arizona on Tuesday and Wednesday. He plans to announce his latest plans for reducing the number of housing foreclosures on Wednesday in Phoenix.

Obama's decision to sign the stimulus bill in Denver is a striking departure from his first few weeks in office, when he held several signing ceremonies in the East Room of the White House. More HERE

Company Offers Oahu Public Housing Rehab Plan

HONOLULU - According to a MSNBC report, A California affordable housing development company is proposing a $239 million rehabilitation of two Honolulu public housing projects.

The proposed renovation of Kuhio Park Terrace and Kuhio Homes would cost the state nothing up front and keep 75 percent of the 748 units for the neediest.

Public housing officials are not actively considering the unsolicited proposal from Santa Ana-based development firm Urban Housing Communities because they don't want to lose any public housing units in any redevelopment. Read More HERE

Obama Mortgage Plan to Focus on Lowering Payments

Rich Miller and Matthew Benjamin at Blomberg report: The White House is willing to spend more than the $50 billion already pledged to stem home foreclosures and intends to focus its efforts on reducing monthly mortgage payments, rather than principal, said Lawrence Summers, the president’s top economic adviser.

“We’re prepared to do what is necessary,” Summers said in an interview on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt” yesterday. “Going directly at the problem means addressing affordability by addressing payments.”

Mounting foreclosures have hammered an already weakened housing market, helping to drive the economy deeper into recession. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg News forecast that gross domestic product will contract 2 percent this year, its biggest decline since 1946.

President Barack Obama will outline his proposal to deal with the housing crisis next week. The announcement will come after lawmakers voted on Obama’s $787 billion fiscal stimulus that’s aimed at restarting growth and providing for 3.5 million jobs.

Summers, who is director of the White House’s National Economic Council, said the economy will be in for a rough time for a while and that unemployment will continue to rise, even with the stimulus package.

“I fear the economy will probably be showing decline and jobs will probably be being lost for some time going forward,” Summers said. He added that the stimulus will probably prevent the unemployment rate from going above 10 percent, after it reached 7.6 percent in January.

Financial Plan

The U.S. has been in a recession since December 2007 and a financial crisis is making banks less willing to lend to consumers and businesses. The Obama administration this week laid out a multi-pronged strategy to address the issue, including the establishment of a public-private partnership to buy illiquid assets clogging banks’ balance sheets.

Summers, 54, brushed off the stock market’s initial reaction to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s Feb. 10 unveiling of the financial plan, saying the administration is focused on the long term rather than day-to-day market movements. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Stock Index dropped 4.9 percent the day of Geithner’s announcement, the steepest decline in three weeks.

Some investors had expected Geithner to signal that the government would be willing to pay more for the illiquid assets than they are worth. “There had been some leaks that had built up expectations for things that didn’t happen and shouldn’t happen,” he said.

Investor Interest

He added that “there have been many expressions of interest in providing some of that private capital” to buy the toxic assets.

He left open the possibility that foreign investors will be allowed to join the fund and take advantage of government financing. “We don’t want to be nationalistic about the approaches that we take,” Summers said.

As part of the administration’s approach to the crisis, regulators will subject about 20 of the country’s largest banks to stress tests to determine whether they can weather future shocks.

“Frankly, we don’t have as accurate an assessment of the situation of a number of institutions as we’d like to because we haven’t really done the stress test against a range of scenarios,” said Summers, a former Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration. More HERE

Highlights of Stimulus Recovery Plan.

Source: Associated Press

Highlights of a $787 billion compromise version of President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan. Additional debt costs would add about $330 billion over 10 years. Many provisions expire in two years.

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Spending

AID TO POOR AND UNEMPLOYED

_ $40 billion to provide extended unemployment benefits through Dec. 31, and increase them by $25 a week; $20 billion to increase food stamp benefits by 14 percent; $4 billion for job training; $3 billion in temporary welfare payments.

DIRECT CASH PAYMENTS

_ $14.2 billion to give one-time $250 payments to Social Security recipients, poor people on Supplemental Security Income, and veterans receiving disability and pensions.

INFRASTRUCTURE

_ $48 billion for transportation projects, including $27.5 billion for highway and bridge construction and repair; $8.4 billion for mass transit; $8 billion for construction of high-speed railways and $1.3 billion for Amtrak; $4.6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers; $4 billion for public housing improvements; $6 billion for clean and drinking water projects; $7.2 billion to bring broadband Internet service to underserved areas; $4.2 billion to repair and modernize Defense Department facilities.

HEALTH CARE

_ $24.7 billion to provide a 65 percent subsidy of health care insurance premiums for the unemployed under the COBRA program; $86.6 billion to help states with Medicaid; $19 billion to modernize health information technology systems; $10 billion for health research and construction of National Institutes of Health facilities; $1 billion for prevention and wellness programs.

STATE BLOCK GRANTS

_ $8.8 billion in aid to states to defray budget cuts.

ENERGY

_ About $50 billion for energy programs, focused chiefly on efficiency and renewable energy, including $5 billion to weatherize modest-income homes; $6.4 billion to clean up nuclear weapons production sites; $11 billion toward a so-called "smart electricity grid" to reduce waste; $6 billion to subsidize loans for renewable energy projects; $6.3 billion in state energy efficiency and clean energy grants; and $4.5 billion make federal buildings more energy efficient; $2 billion in grants for advanced batteries for electric vehicles.

EDUCATION

_ $44.5 billion in aid to local school districts to prevent layoffs and cutbacks, with flexibility to use the funds for school modernization and repair; $25.2 billion to school districts to fund special education and the No Child Left Behind law for students in K-12; $15.6 billion to boost the maximum Pell Grant by $500 to $5,350; $2 billion for Head Start.

HOUSING

_$4 billion to repair and make more energy efficient public housing projects; $2 billion for the redevelop foreclosed and abandoned homes; $1.5 billion for homeless shelters; $2 billion to pay off a looming shortfall in public housing accounts.

SCIENCE

_ $3 billion for the National Science Foundation for basic science and engineering research; $1 billion for NASA; $1.6 billion for research in areas such as climate science, biofuels, high-energy physics and nuclear physics.

HOMELAND SECURITY

_ $2.8 billion for homeland security programs, including $1 billion for airport screening equipment.

LAW ENFORCEMENT

_ $4 billion in grants to state and local law enforcement to hire officers and purchase equipment.

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Taxes

NEW TAX CREDIT

_ About $116 billion for a $400 per-worker, $800 per-couple tax credits in 2009 and 2010. For the last half of 2009, workers could expect to see about $13 a week less withheld from their paychecks starting around June. Millions of Americans who don't make enough money to pay federal income taxes could file returns next year and receive checks. Individuals making more than $75,000 and couples making more than $150,000 would receive reduced amounts.

ALTERNATIVE MINIMUM TAX

_ About $70 billion to spare about 24 million taxpayers from being hit with the alternative minimum tax in 2009. The change would save a family of four an average of $2,300. The tax was designed to make sure wealthy taxpayers can't use credits and deductions to avoid paying any taxes. But it was never indexed to inflation, so families making as little as $45,000 could get significant increases without the change. Congress addresses it each year, usually in the fall.

EXPANDED COLLEGE CREDIT

_ About $14 billion to provide a $2,500 expanded tax credit for college tuition and related expenses for 2009 and 2010. The credit is phased out for couples making more than $160,000.

CHILD TAX CREDIT

_ About $15 billion to provide the $1,000 child tax credit to more families that don't make enough money to pay income taxes.

EARNED INCOME TAX CREDIT

_ $4.7 billion to expand the Earned Income Tax Credit for low-income families with three or more children.

HOMEBUYER CREDIT

_ $6.6 billion to repeal a requirement that a $8,000 first-time home buyer tax credit be paid back over time for homes purchased from Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, unless the home is sold within three years.

AUTO SALES

_ $1.7 billion to makes sales taxes on paid on new cars, light trucks, recreational vehicles and motorcycles tax deductible through the end of the year.

RENEWABLE ENERGY INCENTIVES

_ About 20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency over 10 years, including extending tax credits for energy produced from wind, geothermal, hydropower and landfill gas; grants to build renewable energy facilities; tax credits for purchases of energy-efficient furnaces, windows and doors, or insulation; tax credit for families that purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles.

BONUS DEPRECIATION

_ $5 billion to extend a provision allowing businesses buying equipment such as computers to speed up its depreciation through 2009.

REPEAL BANK CREDIT

_ Repeal a Treasury provision that allowed firms that buy money-losing banks to use more of the losses as tax credits to offset the profits of the merged banks for tax purposes. The change would increase taxes on the merged banks by $7 billion over 10 years.

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Debt Limit

DEBT LIMIT INCREASE

_Increases the statutory limit on the national debt by $789 billion, to $12.1 trillion.

HOPE VI - We Keep Giving Fish Expecting Different Results

Source: blogger, K Nicole Jones Presents: Crib Notes

When I lived in DC, my friends and I called the neighboring suburbs in Prince George County, ‘Greater Southeast’ (a reference to Southeastern D.C). Southeast D.C., was for, generations ubiquitous with urban decay—high poverty, high crime, and high blight with few exceptions. Prince George, on the other hand, was known for having the largest population of upper middle class African American residents. The most obvious reason for the population shift was the rising cost of living associated with gentrification.

But it was while I was an evaluator for a D.C.HOPE VI project (a HUD program started under the Clinton administration to raze physically and socially obsolete housing projects and turn them into mixed income communities), the reason for the shifting crime pattern became even more evident. It was not just gentrifications, but use of HOPE VI, as an urban renewal tool rather than a an inclusive “neighborhood revitalization” tool that was creating a storm of long term disaster.

Under the program, Housing Authorities are authorized to use Section 8 vouchers to help relocate tenants. While housing authorities are merely “required to provide eligible residents with relocation benefits and community and supportive services.”, there was little incentive to provide comprehensive support to residents looking to return or successfully integrate into new neighborhoods. The challenge of taking apart social networks and asking residents to move to places without them has been largely ignored. Instead, Housing authorities have shifted the pervasiveness of poverty out of the projects and scattered it about.

As it stands, less then 10% of former residents actually return to after construction is complete. Less than 20% of the new residents in most of these projects are even low to moderate income (less than 80% of area median income). Instead, former residents move to new communities with no support network and no means of figuring out how to create a new one. Though the legislation requires such support, providing it with families scattered across counties and cities is nearly impossible, and many families become invisible again–except this time without a social network.

Since HOPE VI began, crime has been exploding in the relatively stable near-in suburbs of many mid-sized cities like Mecklenburg(Charlotte) and North Memphis(Memphis); Maywood(Chicago) while it is subsiding substantially in many inner-cities. A study recently conducted by husband and wife team, Richard Janikowski, a criminologist with the University of Memphis, and Phyllis Betts, a housing expert also at the University of Memphis, drives the speculation toward fact. Betts and Janikowski put together a map of crime patterns and a map of section 8 rentals, and voila—they almost perfectly matched.

HOPE VI could be so much. But it is not. HUD should be incentivizing projects to figure out creative ways to re-integrate greater numbers of poor and moderate income residents into the new development (say at least 25%, for example) It should require housing authorities to design comprehensive, multi-tiered strategies to address joblessness, childcare, and eduation while also incentivizing the “step-up” from fully sibsidized housing to possible homeownership. Instead, it gives Section 8 vouchers and permission to housing authorities to simply say “go away.”

Don’t get me wrong, the goal of turning physically obsolescent, blighted public housing into modern, decent housing is of great importance, but the program should be more about creating economically and socially healthy communities and less about the beautification of real estate.

Its high time we time we stopped giving people fish and asking them to go away. Perhaps, its time we, at both the non-profit and public sector levels spend some more time teaching people how to fish instead. K Nicole Jones Presents: Crib Notes

Michelle Obama Visits HUD

Source: The Washington Post

Michelle Obama greets Department of Housing and Urban Development employees today during a visit to the department's headquarters. (Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images)

First Lady Michelle Obama continued her tour of Federal agencies and departments today, stopping by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to thank staffers and remind them that their work is critical as Americans face housing troubles.

Today’s visit, coupled with a stop at the Department of Education earlier this week, was partly designed as a “listening tour,” a public thank you to the department's workforce and partly an effort to “rally the troops” as the Obama administration sets priorities. The order of her visits to federal offices is based on her schedule, not her policy priorities, aides stressed.

Both the physical set up and tone of today’s event resembled the hundreds of campaign appearances she made last year, to mostly welcoming crowds. Her remarks were mixed with serious comments and casual jokes.

Here are a few of the highlights:

-- “It’s of critical importance that we stem the tide of foreclosures and find a way to keep people in their homes,” she told several hundred HUD staffers at the department’s Washington headquarters.

-- “Homeownership, at least as I knew it growing up on the South Side of Chicago, has always been one of the building blocks for strong neighborhoods, for strong schools and for strong families. People who own their homes and take care of their homes, it leads to the well-being of the entire community. It’s critical.”

-- “The Department of Housing and Urban Development is going to play a critical role in implementing elements of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Plan that will help our communities,” she later said.

-- “Barack and I always believed that investing in the community that you live in first and foremost you live in is critical. And for the people here at this agency, we are now your neighbors,” she said to cheers.

-- “Many of you have been here for decades, working hard on these issues,” she said to cheers from the mostly African American crowd. “I can get an Amen on that,” she joked with a smile. More HERE