High Desert looks at local stimulus options
BARSTOW • Representatives of High Desert cities began to hash out the details of a local stimulus plan to be used for transportation projects in San Bernardino County Friday.
The San Bernardino Associated Governments is due to receive a total of $78.5 million in federal stimulus funds for transportation projects, according to a staff report. In April, the SANBAG board voted to put the federal funds towards a major widening project on Interstate 215 in San Bernardino and shift other funds to create a local stimulus pot that would be available for local and county projects that do not meet the stringent requirements for federal stimulus dollars.
The local stimulus program would distribute $31.4 million to local governments to use for transportation-related projects like road construction and major pavement rehabilitation.
Depending on how the funds are distributed, Barstow’s share could range from $309,783 to $529,158.
Now the SANBAG board must decide where the funds for the local stimulus package will come from and how to distribute them.
One option would use state bond funds for a portion of the pot along with Measure I county sales tax funds and some federal stimulus funds specifically set aside for rural transportation projects, which can not be used for the I-215 project. A second option would use no state funds.
Duane Baker, director of management services and Mountain/Desert subregional policies for SANBAG, said that at a committee meeting Friday, representatives of the Desert/Mountain region, which includes Barstow, were wary of using any state funds — especially from bonds that have yet to be sold — because of California’s current fiscal issues. They also objected to a SANBAG staff proposal to cut the total pot by 15 percent if no state funds are used, he said.
The discount was proposed because the local Measure I funds would be subject to less regulation.
First District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt, who led the discussion at the meeting, said Friday afternoon that he disagreed with the discountbecause in the mountain and desert area, road projects are largely things like pavement rehabilitation, which are not subject to stringent environmental review in any case.
“We have so few dollars to maintain so many miles of roads, particularly in the desert, that every dollar counts,” he said.
Mitzelfelt also said the committee members felt that it was important to keep the rural stimulus funds separate and make sure that they go to rural projects.
The funds could be distributed either on a purely per capita basis or using a combination of population and sales tax revenue, Baker said. SANBAG staff are currently recommending using only population, with a stipulation that each agency would receive at least $200,000.
Baker said the representatives who spoke at the meeting were generally in favor of that distribution plan. Barstow’s SANBAG representative, City Councilwoman Julie Hackbarth McIntyre, was not present at the meeting and could not be reached Friday afternoon.
SANBAG staff will take feedback gathered from the committee meetings and from meetings with city and county employees to develop a final set of options for the committees to vote on, followed by a final SANBAG vote, Baker said.
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