Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey JournalActing Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf, right, looks on while Gov. Chris Christie speaks in this file photo. The state has been awarded $38 million in Race to the Top funding to bolster Christies education agenda.
By Christopher Weaver
Sen. Tom Harkin (D., Iowa) is calling for an inquiry into whether South Carolina officials used funding from the health-overhaul law to block the law?s central plank from taking hold in the palmetto state.
At issue is $1 million the federal government gave to the state to plan its own health-insurance exchange, the online shopping centers set to take effect in 2014. Though the state took the money, Republican Gov. Nikki Haley, a health-law opponent, said months ago that South Carolina doesn?t plan to create the exchange.
The Post and Courier, a Charleston, SC, newspaper, reported last week that Gov. Haley wrote in an email to key members of the planning committee financed by the grant that their goal should be to find a way to ?NOT create a state exchange.? Under the law, the federal government will build exchanges in states that choose to skip the work.
A spokesman for Gov. Haley shot back yesterday that the accusation is ?a joke.?
But Sen. Harkin, a strong supporter of the law, isn?t laughing. He?s asked a federal inspector general to look into whether the state diverted health-law implementation grants to thwart the law.
Gov. Haley?s reported emails raise questions in South Carolina and Washington about whether the months-long deliberation over exchange planning, which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, was a charade.
South Carolina officials say they used the money to do real work, and they?re opening up the books to show it. This morning, an official in the state?s Department of Insurance sent the Wall Street Journal a list of expenses, ranging from $581.39 worth of office chairs to a $2,300.14 Dell laptop and a $167,370.68 consulting bill.
In all, South Carolina expects to spend $305,000 out of the $1 million available for exchange planning, according to an estimate that includes expenses not yet paid. The remaining balance will stay in the hands of the federal health department.
An expense report published on the planning committee?s website shows the group had spent only $109,000 through the end of November.
Anthony Keck, the director of the state?s health department, said in an interview that the committee used the money to explore options to make buying insurance easier beyond what the federal health law requires. The consulting fees ? the largest portion of the state?s planning tab ? went, for instance, to University of South Carolina researchers who analyzed insurance coverage rates in the state and held focus groups on exchanges.
Gov. Haley ?could have said, ?Don?t even do this,? ? Mr. Keck said. ?But, she said, let?s go forward and use this as an opportunity to understand the law and the risk. She wanted us to look for alternatives.?
Funding and Such
Some years ago, Senator John Kerry voted for the Iraq war funding before he voted against it. He got in a lot of trouble because, in the end, his proposal would have funded the war, but in a different way than the bill that was passed, but people took that as him being against the funding. Its hard to keep up with that sort of story line. Its the sort of story that gets caught in the current and carried downstream no matter how hard you paddle upstream.
The Republicans are in the same, swift, boat now. They too are in favor of the policy (extending the payroll tax holiday), for even longer than the Democratic proposal. But because they want it to work differently, they are getting accused of being against the policy altogether. Now, some of them are against it, but theres a majority of both parties sufficient to pass it, if they could work out how to pay for it.
The only difference with Kerry is that there was a majority of both parties who got it passed without him, so the policy moved forward without jeopardizing the timeline. But the timeline is upon us now, and the House Republicans had no more time to get a better bill now.
Of course, this bill lasts only two months. I wonder if this wasnt planned by Boehner, frankly: he waits for the conservatives of his party to go home, he strikes a deal to pass it without them, they return next year angry and ready to fight, and they get a better deal for the remainder of the year. People are saying Boehner and the Republicans lost big here, but Im not so sure. Yes, they take a small and temporary hit from people who are lied to into believing that they were against the payroll tax extension, but if they can pull off a better bill in two months, that will be quickly forgotten.
Its funny to me that so many people are accusing Boehner of being short-sighted, but they themselves cant see that just two months down the road, Boehner has an opportunity to turn it all around.
Cross-posted on lt;pudge/*gt;.
Posted by pudge at December 23, 2011
12:42 PM | Email This
An emission-reducing raisin tray burning system, a natural gas conversion kit for locomotive engines, and an all-electric agricultural sprayer are just a few of the new technologies being developed with the goal of improving air quality in the Central Valley.
The San Joaquin Valley Air Districts Governing Board granted $2,947,694 to 11 projects targeted at reducing the Valleys air quality emissions through new technology. The board also authorized an additional $3 million for an additional round of funding to bring more technology-advancement entrepreneurs in the Valley.
The innovations are part of the districts Technology Advancement Program. TAP is a strategic approach to encouraging innovation and development of new emission reduction technologies. It consists of ongoing reviews of new concepts and collaborations and provides funding for qualified research and development.
The latest round of competitive proposals resulted in numerous submissions. District staff carefully evaluated the proposals for a variety of criteria, including relevance to attainment plans, co-benefits, cost-effectiveness, funding requested and leveraging, and project readiness. Funding was recommended for 11.
We are encouraged by the response we received to this funding availability, said Seyed Sadredin, the districts executive director and air pollution control officer. Not only are these new projects innovations that will help clean up the Valley, but they are also vital to supporting the Valleys technology development community and economic vitality.
Emission-reducing efforts are of vital importance to the Valley, because the area has the unfortunate distinction of having some of the poorest air quality in the nation, according to the American Lung Association. Air pollution can cause respiratory and heart problems, especially among children, the elderly and those with existing health concerns.
The California Department of Public Health reports that San Joaquin Valley residents experience three times Californias state average for asthma attacks and five times the national average for asthma attacks.
The newly funded projects and amounts are:
bull; $350,000 for Pure Power Technologies proposal to demonstrate a non-urea NOx reduction retrofit system for diesel trucks;
bull; $300,000 for California Bioenergys proposal to demonstrate advanced two-stage controls to a biogas engine system to achieve near-zero NOx;
bull; $258,000 for US Hybrid Corp.s proposal to demonstrate a plug-in hybrid wheel loader in a dairy application, and $292,830 for their demonstration of a plug-in hybrid propane/electric work truck;
bull; $75,580 for Energy Conversions Inc.s proposal to demonstrate a natural gas conversion kit for two-stroke diesel locomotive engines;
bull; $370,534 for Electricore Inc.s proposal to demonstrate a fully autonomous agricultural sprayer based on a zero-emission, all-electric vehicle platform;
bull; $28,250 for Sun-Maid Growers of Californias proposal to demonstrate an emission-reducing raisin tray burning system;
bull; $300,000 for Thermatas proposal to demonstrate a concentrating solar steam system to offset boiler fuel consumption and emissions;
bull; $250,000 for Leva Energy Inc.s proposal to demonstrate a power-generating burner that recovers wasted energy through a microturbine;
bull; $242,500 for the City of Mantecas proposal to demonstrate a serial hybrid hydraulic refuse truck;
bull; $230,000 for the Association of Compost Producers proposal to demonstrate a positively aerated static compost pile system;
bull; $350,000 for PGamp;E Fleet Engineerings proposal to demonstrate an extended range electric drive Class 6 bucket truck with electric worksite operation capacity.
To contact Sabra Stafford, e-mail sstafford@turlockjournal.com or call 634-9141 ext. 2002.
Unesco cuts funding for Palestinian youth magazine over Hitler praise
Unesco, the UNs cultural agency, is to pull funding for a Palestinian youth magazine that published an article suggesting admiration for Adolf Hitler.
A program that aids people with their heating bills should have adequate money to handle a larger number of requests this winter, according to the director of the states energy assistance program.
Congress has not finalized spending on the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program for this winter but has continued to provide funding at past levels through a continuing resolution.
What we have received so far, along with what we have obligated from past years, makes us very confident that we will have funds for even these extremely high bills we are expecting, said Ron Knutson, director of LIHEAP in the Department of Human Services.
Although requests statewide are down for December because of mild weather, the department is prepared for a higher number of requests from the Minot area. Hundreds of homeowners are heating both their flooded homes and temporary housing units provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Electric bills in the FEMA units could be higher than residents are used to, which may require some residents to seek assistance, Knutson said.
In 2010, more than 16,000 low-income households in North Dakota participated in the state program.
People can apply for assistance through their local county social service offices.
No one likes an unpleasant surprise at Christmas.
But if Aunt Louise drops her Christmas cake in the mail every year and Uncle Mort delivers another ugly tie to be unwrapped each December, it ceases to be a surprise.
So it was with the countrys provincial finance ministers Monday. If they were surprised that federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty dropped his health-care funding stink bomb at the lunch table in Victoria, then they werent paying attention. Or else this gnashing of teeth and national beating of the breast is largely feigned for the home audience.
We were expecting to discuss how we were going to discuss federal transfers, Quebec Finance Minister Raymond Bachand said after the meeting.
Really?
Raymond Bachand, meet Stephen Harper.
This is how the Conservatives negotiate, whether it is with the federal opposition parties or the provinces.
They dont.
They dictate.
But to be fair, they telegraphed this stance, through the media and through public statements by Flaherty and Harper in recent weeks.
One highly placed source said health-care reform will never be seriously addressed until the funding question is put to rest.
So Flaherty put it to rest, telling not asking the finance ministers that he would extend the six per cent increases in health transfers through 2016-17 (by which time, Conservatives may not even be in power) before tying increases through 2024 to economic growth, with a floor of three per cent.
The good news for provinces is that they can now budget through 2017, but the bad news is the uncertainty following that date.
If health-care spending must be pared during another future economic downturn, it is bound to create hardship because the health-care system is under much more stress during economic downturns.
With no strings apparently attached to the funding proposal, Ottawa is essentially plunking the money on the table and letting the provinces go their own way.
Some provinces will be able to spend more on health care, others will bear a bigger burden of the aging population, others now have an opportunity to experiment with more private delivery.
One can feel Ontario Finance Minister Dwight Duncans pain to an extent.
He is facing a $16-billion deficit, stubborn unemployment, a possible credit downgrade, an aging population and an aging economic base. He is also looking at the same uncertain economic future as Flaherty.
His next budget is sure to be a bad-news budget in which hard decisions deferred in a bid for re-election must finally be taken.
One of those will involve health-care spending, now 42 per cent of all Ontario expenditures.
But the province is already projecting slowing health-care spending, predicting a 3.6 per cent growth in costs next year, or almost exactly what Flaherty could be projecting in his transfers following 2016.
So Duncan is actually on board with Flaherty when it comes to reining in spending, even as Ontario asks for more. There are more shoes to drop in this debate, so it is too early to be apocalyptic about the future of the public, single-payer universal system.
The dangers may be real Nova Scotia Premier Darrell Dexter mused Tuesday about signing on to this deal for only five years.
More likely, there will now be an opportunity, as Canadian Medical Association president John Haggie puts it, to identify how resources will be used to improve patient care across the country.
Premiers meet to discuss health care next month and federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq has suggested a meeting with her provincial counterparts aiming at the same goal.
Last week, Flaherty mockingly described himself in the House of Commons as an elf.
If the provinces can grudgingly accept the funding parameters and work together within those constraints, the finance minister need not be known as the Grinch.
Tim Harper is a national affairs columnist for the Toronto Star.
A fascinating legal fight is shaping up in Texas, where 63 school districts have filed suit against the state, charging that its method of funding schools in unconstitutional.
The lawsuit includes the largest districts Austin, Houston and Dallas. More than 3 million students are enrolled in the districts.
The issue, according to the lawsuit, is that the state has run afoul of the Texas Constitution by failing to provide adequate resources to meet the higher academic standards established by the Legislature, writes the Austin American-Statesman. At the same time, districts lack meaningful discretion to set their own tax rates, as the courts have said is required. Finally, the system for divvying up the limited state dollars among the districts is inequitable and arbitrary.
In a statement issued by the plaintiffs attorneys, they argue that a temporary finance system approved by the Texas legislature in 2006 has become a permanent funding system that assigns different levels of money to students in different school districts without regard for the actual costs of educating a growing and increasingly diverse and poor student population.
The lawsuit should be closely watched here in Indiana. My colleague, Dan Stockman, reported in August on Indiana property tax rate inequities that allow wealthier school districts to raise much greater amounts of money with a lower tax rate than poorer districts can raise with a higher rate. Statewide tax revenues cover general fund costs in Indiana, but school districts can ask voters to contribute more locally through a general fund referendum. Indiana is inevitably headed to a system of rich schools and poor schools.
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Discussion
MUNCIE — The would-be developer of senior apartments at the former Roberts Hotel should know early next year if much of the $16 million in funding needed for the project will be available.
We hope to know whether were funded or not in March, said Pete Schwiegeraht of Cincinnati-based Miller Valentine Group.
Miller Valentine is seeking funding from a variety of sources but primarily the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority, a state agency that distributes federal funding for housing projects. The IHCDA is a primary funding avenue for agencies providing affordable housing for Hoosiers.
Schwiegeraht said Miller Valentine had submitted an application to the IHCDA in November.
Theyre the primary funding source, Schwiegeraht said, noting that the developers would also seek historic tax credits.
Mayor Sharon McShurley — who announced Miller Valentines involvement with the Roberts in September — said this week it was also her understanding that the developer would determine early next year if funding would be in place for the project.
I will look forward to hearing what happens, said McShurley, who noted that she wont see the project through to completion. She leaves office at the end of the year after losing her re-election campaign to Dennis Tyler.
Schwiegeraht said Miller Valentine also hoped to secure some funding from the city. McShurley had made a verbal commitment of up to $2.5 million for a previous set of developers whose efforts to turn the Roberts into a boutique hotel ended in spring 2011 when financing couldnt be secured.
Any offer from McShurley might not be carried over to Tylers administration, however.
Schwiegeraht said Miller Valentines plans for the building — built in 1921, shuttered and renovated in the 1980s and then closed again in October 2006 — had changed little since the September announcement.
The developer plans to remodel the building for 83 senior apartment units. The first floor would offer up to 20,000 square feet of commercial space that could be home to a restaurant, bar and small shops.
We would be interested in speaking to parties with an interest in the commercial space, but as of now, no tenants have been identified, Schwiegeraht said.
While the first floor of the building is largely untouched from its condition in 2006, the top two floors were gutted under a failed attempt by former owner Peter Dvorak to turn the building into luxury apartments. The middle floors are still laid out as hotel rooms although they are heavily damaged. Schwiegeraht said in September all the buildings floors would likely be gutted.
Its certainty structurally sound and functional, he said this week. It will take a lot of money to retrofit it, but we havent found anything from a structural standpoint.
Schwiegeraht said Miller Valentine representatives have met with local senior citizen groups and agencies as well as government officials. In general, weve gotten a very favorable response.
Contact business editor Keith Roysdon at 213-5828. Find him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/keithroysdon.