Stimulus

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) provides approximately $789 billion in tax cuts and spending to help jumpstart our nation's lagging economy. Entities like states, local government, school districts, tribes, and other qualified recipients for whom the money is intended must be prepared to put the money to use or they are going to miss out. Now is the time to start looking closely at the stimulus package and identifying the types of funding that will help further the interests of both the ARRA and your locality.

Information on ARRA funds for schools, including 0% interest school construction bonds can be found at the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF) website.  The page entitled Tax Credit Bonds for School Construction, Renovation, and Repair provides a thorough discussion of the various financial instruments that will be available, or enhanced, by the ARRA.

NCEF does a nice job of summarizing all the ARRA funding streams for public schools. Since deadlines pass and new program guidelines and dates are announced, it's worth checking back regularly to see what the current programs are. You'll find the summary here.

Here are organizations and websites that are providing regular updates on the status of the Recovery funds: 

1) The California Energy Commission website is the portal for information on the stimulus funds that are flowing to California. The website will also provide you with an opportunity to get regular updates sent to you as they are announced. Regular updates can be found here.

2) For California cities, see the website for the League of California Cities. The LCC has released a handbook entitled "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009: City Funding Book" that you can download here (pdf). (UPDATED Sept. 2009)
 
3) All California cities, including those with populations of less than 35,000, and all small California counties with populations under 200,000, can learn everything they need to know about energy efficiency block grants and renewable energy possibilities in the ARRA  at this California Energy Commission website.

4) ICLEI's new (October 2009) Guide to Recovery Act Opportunities in California can be found here.

5) In the “green jobs” category, see the report published by PolicyLink and Green for All entitled: Bringing Home the Green Recovery: A User's Guide to the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

6) For Redevelopment Agencies see the California Redevelopment Association website.