(Host) Vermont’s chief recovery officer hopes to turn the $720 million economic stimulus dollars the state is slated to receive into a billion or more — through successful bids for grants that will be awarded competitively.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has 300 programs, with funds for many different types of groups and activities.
Speaking on VPR’s Vermont Edition, State Economic Stimulus Czar Tom Evslin said he hopes to help piece together those programs synergistically.
(Evslin) "The broadband that we want to build with the money that’s available for broadband is the information infrastructure that we want to use for the money that’s available from the Energy department is the infrastructure for e-education, is the infrastructure for e-health. It doesn’t do any good if your health records are computerized if your doctor can’t get access to them. So there’s a lot of coordination to do, a lot of priorities to set to make sure that we take this money, which is going to stop after two years, use it not for short term bandaids but use it for long term projects that will leave Vermont an even stronger than it was."
(Host) Evslin has been trying to get groups and individuals who want to pursue grants to work together toward overlapping and related goals.
The administration’s priorities are: Reducing energy costs and fossil fuel use, reducing health care costs, highway maintenance and water treatment, and universal broadband. Economic development is also a goal.