Category: Susanna Vagman
States Riddled With Waste
WASHINGTON—One person’s pork is another’s bacon. Either way, New Hampshire is getting a lot of it this year.
New Hampshire ranked fourth among the states and the District of Columbia in the amount of money it received per person for what one watchdog group derisively calls “pork.” The state catapulted from 21 st place last year, according to the latest Congressional Pig Book Summary released Wednesday by Citizens Against Government Waste, a non-profit group that monitors what it considers to be wasteful federal spending.
While states received an average $31.17 pork per person nationwide, New Hampshire took in $216.34 a person, the report said. Only Alaska, Hawaii and District of Columbia ranked higher. Alaska topped the list at $808.13 of pork per person.
Citizens Against Government Waste defines pork as expenditures added to the president’s proposed budget by members of Congress hoping to do favors for their constituents. In Washington parlance, they are called earmarks.
New Hampshire Congress members took full credit for their successes.
“I am very proud of my work on the Senate Appropriations Committee to secure needed funds for the preservation of Great Bay, keeping our lakes clean and our air pure, as well as keeping Granite State communities safe and law enforcement personnel well-trained and properly protected,” Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said in a statement.
But, Citizens Against Government Waste blamed the 10,656 projects that Congress earmarked for fiscal 2004 for adding to the record federal deficit, projected to be $521 billion, and the $7.1 trillion national debt. Wasteful spending, the group said, cost taxpayers $22.9 billion in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, up 1.6 percent, or $4 million, from last year.
In the Pig Book, the group itemized 630 projects, which cost $3.1 billion, as “the most egregious and blatant examples” of pork.
New Hampshire Congress members agreed that the deficit must be brought under control, but added that the programs they inserted into appropriations bills were important to their constituency.
“The better we control total federal spending, the fewer earmarks there will be in our appropriations bills. I have voted against budget-busting bills for agriculture subsidies, energy and transportation, and will continue to work to protect taxpayers’ pockets while advocating for New Hampshire citizens,” said Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H.
Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-N.H., said he had not seen the report yet, but that “a number of projects have been secured for New Hampshire this year that will go a long way towards providing for the defense of our nation, protecting our environment and helping to defray the costs of education for local property taxpayers.”
Mark Carpenter, spokesman for Citizens Against Government Waste, said the group is not critical of every individual project it labels “pork.”
“Our objection is how they were added into the budget,” he said. “It circumvents the normal budget process with no regard to how money can be better spent.”
But the group’s president, Thomas A. Schatz, suggested this was not just an issue of process, but of priorities, particularly during wartime. He spoke at a press conference featuring two live pigs and a person wearing a bright-pink pig costume. Along with the Pig Book and accompanying press releases, reporters were offered toy snouts.
“I would like to ask every member of Congress – representatives and senators – to take a good look in the mirror and ask themselves if any of these projects are really more important than protecting the United States of America,” Schatz said.
To make it into the Pig Book, an appropriation must meet one of seven criteria:– it was requested by only one Congress member; it wasn’t specifically authorized; it wasn’t competitively awarded; President Bush didn’t request it; it greatly exceeded Bush’s budget request or the previous year’s funding; it wasn’t the subject of a congressional hearing; or it serves only a local or special interest.
As the chairman of the Senate Commerce, Justice, State and the Judiciary Appropriations Subcommittee, Gregg secured more than $37 million for the Granite State in fiscal 2004. Some of the items included $6 million for the Great Bay Partnership, a nature conservatory; $3 million for the J-One Information System, intended to improve the criminal justice system; $1 million for the Mount Washington Observatory; $590,000 to reduce milfoil in the state’s lakes; $500,000 for the New England Weather Technology Initiative; and $500,000 to establish the Belknap Regional Special Operations Program.
But New Hampshire’s largest bit of “pork” was $200 million used to refuel the U.S.S. Jacksonville, a submarine docked in Portsmouth.
J-One is an initiative linking various branches of the criminal justice system so they can easily share information, said New Hampshire State Police Col. Frederick Booth.
“I don’t see it as a government waste. I see it as just the opposite,” said Booth. “If anything, this is going to improve efficiency.”
Gregg, who has been particularly critical of increased spending in the face of the ballooning deficit, also has defended the J-One expenditure. “This system will ensure that whether it be an officer on the street or a judge in a courtroom, the information they have is up-to-date and available, and will save valuable time and resources,” he said in a statement last fall.
The observatory, a non-profit organization in North Conway, will use its money to improve research, upgrade equipment and digitalize its information system, said executive director Will Abbott. For 72 years, the observatory has recorded temperature, wind speed, barometric pressure and other meteorological indicators, but much of its equipment is 30 to 50 years old, Abbott said.
“Anybody who would criticize Sen. Gregg as too much of a spender in Congress doesn’t know him very well,” said Abbott. “My experience is that he puts a very high standard on any project that he considers supporting.”
Plymouth State University received $500,000 for the weather initiative. The money is “seed money” to add another faculty and staff member to its meteorology institute, said meteorology professor James Koermer.
Similarly, New Hampshire defends its milfoil project. According to Harry Stewart, the director of the Water Division at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, the plant milfoil is carried by boats from lake to lake, clogging the water as it grows 30 to 40 feet tall. Since there is no way to permanently destroy the exotic species, more research is needed on how to control it. So far, New Hampshire has 53 infested lakes, said Joel Harrington, environmental policy director at the New Hampshire Lakes Association.
The state submitted a letter to Gregg requesting $500,000 for research and $90,000 for the Lakes Association to deal with milfoil. The association inspected 26,000 boats last year, saving five lakes from becoming infested with milfoil, said Harrington.
A U.S. Commerce Department spokesperson, who asked not to be quoted by name, said the administration supports a number of the New Hampshire projects listed in the Pig Book.
Bi-Partisan Support for Child Care
WASHINGTON—The Senate Tuesday overwhelmingly approved an amendment by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Me., to add $6 billion for child care over the next five years to the proposed reauthorization of the landmark 1996 welfare reform law.
Snowe’s amendment was adopted, 78-20, with 46 Democrats, 31 Republicans, including Sen. Susan Collins, R-Me., and one independent voting for it. New Hampshire’s two Republican senators voted no. It would bring to $11.8 billion the amount the federal government spends on child care under the welfare program, called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
“The quality of affordable child care will make welfare reform worthwhile,” Snowe told reporters after the vote. “I am very pleased we were able to secure a broad bipartisan effort.”
“Something stunning just happened,” said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn. “We have reached an important milestone in reauthorizing welfare legislation.”
The goal is to “move from welfare to workforce, not temporarily, but permanently if we can,” he said before the vote. “Without this amendment, that goal is unachievable,” he said after the vote.
The added $6 billion would come from user fees on imports and so would not contribute to the federal deficit, Snowe said in a press release.
The House-passed version of the welfare reauthorization bill, which the White House supports, includes $1 billion in child-care funds.
With states running budget deficits and a decline in funds for welfare, many child care programs have been cut, according to the National Women’s Law Center in Washington. Currently, 1,800 children are on waiting lists in Maine. New Hampshire has frozen reimbursement rates for child care for the past four years and eliminated after-school program grants.
“Working-poor families need this help, and these mothers need child care assistance,” Dodd said. “They don’t have anyone else.”
A 2002 Economic Policy Institute study found that former welfare recipients with young children are 60 percent more likely to be employed after two years if they receive child-care assistance.
Senators who co-sponsored Snowe’s amendment agreed that child care is an essential step toward full-time employment for former welfare recipients and low-income households.
“Often a parent’s salary is almost completely offset by the cost of child care, and this burden is particularly heavy on low-income families,” Collins said in a statement. “This funding will ensure that more parents get the support they need to keep their children safe and make a living.”
New Hampshire’s senators cited different reasons for their votes against Snowe’s amendment.
“This welfare reform reauthorization maintains the TANF block grant at $16.5 billion per year – even though caseloads have fallen 58 percent since 1996,” Sen. John Sununu said in a statement. He added that the bill also called for increases in child-care spending of $1 billion over the next five years, and that “given the incredible success of welfare reform, I think this funding is quite sufficient to help millions more Americans make the transition from welfare to independence.”
Sen. Judd Gregg, who chairs the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said he was prepared to offer his own amendment to double the increase in child-care spending to $2 billion over five years from the $1 billion in the House bill. He express concern that Snowe’s $6 billion was not paid for.
“The real effect of the bill was to go way outside the budget and add a huge new tranche of dollars beyond the budget, which would be fine had it been realistically offset, but it wasn’t realistically offset,” Gregg said on the Senate floor. A press release from his office added that Snowe’s amendment “relied on fees from the U.S. Customs Department, and these fees, as stated by Sen. Gregg, are continuously used to pay for different functions and initiatives.”
New Hampshire Discusses Broadcasting Issues
Washington -Sen. John Sununu, R-NH, said Tuesday that broadcasters need to be persuaded to offer free air time to political candidates.
Sununu, a member of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, which has jurisdiction over broadcasting, spoke at a National Association of Broadcasters State Leadership Conference
Although legislation to provide free air time is not something Congress is likely to discuss this year, Sununu said, campaign financing reformers will look for other ways to meet the high costs of running for office. Public financing is controversial, he said, and it's difficult to "get the public to scrape up" the money to pay for it. So it has to be done, he said, by "forcing broadcasters to give free air time."
But Sununu cited constitutional reasons for not making free air time mandatory.
He recommended that broadcasting stations think in advance of how to make free air time accessible, and with some planning, they will "be the better for it."
WNDS, channel 50 in Derry , offers free air time through debates and informational interviews during the election season and on weekend shows, news director Alicia Preston said in a telephone interview.
WMUR, channel 9 in Manchester , recently did 14 half-hour shows, two one-hour specials and two live debates with the Democratic presidential candidates. Thirty days before the primary, WMUR asked the major candidates to answer 10 questions "without editorial comment," general manager Jeff Bartlett said. "We don't believe it [free air time] should be mandated because we offer plenty of opportunities without a mandate"
Sununu also talked about the Satellite Home Viewer Improvement Act, which, according to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Web site, "permits satellite carriers to transmit local television broadcast signals into local markets. The act also allows "satellite carriers to provide distant or national broadcast programming to subscribers."
Although Sununu said he didn't think there would be "any dramatic changes" in the law, he believes it should "reflect an updating and modification based on what viewers have come to expect."
"Consumers have a strong expectation that what's free over the air should be part of their cable package," said FCC Commissioner Kevin Martin.
According to last year's New Hampshire House Journal, many satellite subscribers in New Hampshire are in the Portland/Auburn area and don't receive ABC affiliate WMUR..
Some northern counties, such as Coos, Carroll and Grafton, are considered to be in Maine ' market, so they don't receive WMUR, Bartlett said. Dish network EchoStar is so far south that those counties are unable to get the station's signal, he said.
Last August, Rep. Jeb Bradley, R-NH, and Rep. Charles Bass, R-NH, proposed an amendment that would provide access for states with only one affiliate station to that station's signals through satellite, according to a press release. "The amendment would allow people in northern counties to choose to watch us," Bartlett said.
Another problem is that New Hampshire doesn't have many local stations, Sununu said. WNDS covers the area north of Concord and down to the seacoast, the Maine border, some of Vermont and a large portion of Massachusetts . "A station like ours, which also covers an enormous amount of Massachusetts , has a lot of land to cover," Preston said.
Comcast subscribers Anthony Jones in Portsmouth and Bill Robinson in Dover receive WMUR but say there is a lack of variety.
"You don't get as much local news as you want," said Jones, a restaurant worker. "It's all about what's going on around the world, and it's not relevant to here."
Robinson said he watches channel 6 in Portland , Maine . He said the station has some New Hampshire news, and it doesn't really bother him to watch another state's news since he has beach property in the Pine Tree State .
Veterans Ask For Better Care
WASHINGTON-President Bush's proposal to increase federal spending on veterans' medical care, while putting the total significantly higher than when he took office, still falls far short of what the aging veterans' population needs, lawmakers and former military service members said at a congressional hearing this week.
Further, the veterans and some Congress members said, care is not available in all the places they need it - such as New Hampshire.
"A nation that abandons its warriors once the swords of its enemies lie rusting on the ground dishonors itself and imperils its future," Alan W. Bowers, national commander of the Disabled American Veterans, told a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs committees Tuesday.
There are about 140,000 veterans in New Hampshire , 15 percent of the state population, and more than 25 million veterans nationwide, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. And while the veterans' population is slowly declining, its medical demands are rising, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Bush has proposed spending $29.5 billion for veterans' medical care in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. That's an increase of 4 percent from fiscal 2004 and 40 percent from 2001, the year Bush took office.
"As a result, today we provide quality medical care to a million more veterans than we did in 2001," Anthony J. Principi, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, said earlier this month.
Still, said Jeb Bradley, R.-N.H., "it is not sufficient to take care of our veterans."
"Veteran's health care deserves priority," said Bradley, a member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee.
The number of veterans seeking care at VA facilities rose 134 percent between 1996 and 2003, an increase that dwarfs the growth in spending in recent years, according to the Partnership for Veterans Health Care Budget Reform, a consortium of nine veterans service organizations.
"We're at war," said Adjutant John Zachodny Jr. of the American Legion of New Hampshire. "We feel that the hospitals are not capable of handling our servicemen that are coming back with wounds," Zachodny, 57 and a Vietnam War veteran, said in a telephone interview.
"Unfortunately, there's never enough money," said Richard E. Manner, 82, who was wounded in the leg and the back during World War II and who attended the hearing. "They can throw it overseas, but they always forget about the veterans."
Some Congress members said they supported increased spending on veterans even in the face of a record federal deficit.
"Yes, we want to work towards eliminating the deficit," said Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Fla. "But it shouldn't come at the expense of our veterans."
Bradley questioned why 5,000 New Hampshire veterans have to travel to other states to receive medical attention. The VA Medical Center in Manchester , servicing 17,000 patients, stopped providing in-patient acute services in 1999. Veterans who need hospitalization are transferred to VA medical facilities in other states or to a local hospital, said Jim Thompson, a spokesman for the center.
Veterans have to travel three hours each way to other states, such as Vermont and Massachusetts , to receive in-patient care at a VA hospital, said Dr. Brian K. Matchett, commander of Disabled American Veterans in New Hampshire .
NEA Receives Proposed Budget Boost
WASHINGTON-The Alice James Poetry Cooperative Inc., affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington, publishes six books of poetry a year by authors across the country, selected through national and New England regional contests. This year, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded it a $24,000 grant.
"The NEA grants are a godsend because you can apply them to all the expenses of publishing the books," said the cooperative's director, April Ossmann.
For four years in a row, the cooperative has received one of about 2,200 annual NEA grants to individuals, state arts councils and nongovernmental art organizations. If Congress approves President Bush's fiscal 2005 proposal of $139.4 million for the NEA, more grants will be given out next year.
Bush's recommendation to boost NEA funding by $18 million, the largest increase since 1984, would benefit local artists. Since 1991, funding for the independent federal agency rapidly decreased until 2001.
It is too soon to know whether Congress will accept Bush's proposal. "It is very early in the budget process," said NEA spokeswoman Felicia Knight. A House Appropriations subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the NEA appropriation April 1.
If Congress passes Bush's proposal, state arts organizations would receive $53 million, according to the NEA. Each state receives a base amount plus extra money allocated according to population and competitiveness, such as reaching underserved areas, said Rebecca Lawrence, director of the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts.
The Maine Arts Commission in Augusta was awarded about $850,000 this year, $20,000 more than last year, assistant director Bryan Knicely said.
The NEA requires matching grants for most of the awards, a "fundraising tool" that "inspires more donations from the community," Knight said. In what she described as "a highly competitive, rigorous process," grant requests are reviewed by a panel, with its recommendations based on artistic merit. A national advisory board makes the final decision.
This year , the NEA awarded 788 creativity grants totaling $19.8 million, with grants of $99,000 to six arts organizations in Maine .
VSA Arts of Maine, a Portland-based organization that helps more than 200,000 disabled people in the state, received $10,000 this year for a cultural access project. VSA Maine will use the money to expand the accessibility of cultural facilities in the state, executive director David C. Webster said.
The Alice James Poetry Cooperative Inc. received $5,000 in 2001, $18,000 in 2002 and $25,000 last year. Unlike other grants that must be used for a specific purpose, NEA grants can be applied for general purposes, said the cooperative's director, Ossmann.
NEA Awards Artists
WASHINGTON - In early December, Alexander Parsons had just finished teaching a fiction writing class at the University of Hampshire when his phone rang. It was the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), calling to tell him that he had won a $20,000 literature creative writing fellowship award.
The 34-year-old writer will use the money as he completes his third novel, so far untitled, about repossession of cars and ethnic and class strife in New Mexico . Believing that he would never win the grant, he felt "very lucky," he said, to succeed the first time he applied.
Parsons received one of about 2,200 annual NEA grants to individuals, state arts councils and nongovernmental art organizations, and if Congress approves President Bush's fiscal 2005 proposal of $139.4 million for the NEA, more grants will be given out next year.
Bush's recommendation to increase NEA funding by $18 million, the largest since 1984, would benefit local artists. Since 1991, funding for the independent federal agency rapidly decreased until 2001.
It is too soon to know whether Congress will accept Bush's proposal. "It is very early in the budget process," said NEA spokeswoman Felicia Knight. A House Appropriations subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the NEA appropriation April 1.
If Congress passes Bush's proposal, state arts organizations would receive $53 million, according to the NEA. Each state receives a base amount plus extra money allocated according to population and competitiveness, such as reaching underserved areas in the state, said Rebecca Lawrence, director of the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, in Concord .
The Maine Arts Commission in Augusta was awarded about $850,000 this year, $20,000 more than last year, assistant director Bryan Knicely said. The New Hampshire State Council was awarded about $580,000 this year, approximately the same as last year, Lawrence said.
Most grants go to arts organizations, not individuals, Knight said. The NEA requires matching grants for most of the awards, a "fundraising tool" that "inspires more donations from the community," she said. In what Knight described as "a highly competitive, rigorous process," grant requests are reviewed by a panel, with its recommendations based on artistic merit. A national advisory board makes the final decision.
This year , the NEA awarded 788 creativity grants totaling $19.8 million, with grants of $99,000 to six arts organizations in Maine and $100,000 to four in New Hampshire .
The MacDowell Colony in Peterborough , N.H. , has received NEA funds off and on for the last 40 years, though not in 2002 and 2003. The colony, which houses and feeds 250 artists for two months in private studios, was awarded $30,000 for this year, enough to support 10 artists.
"Artists of all disciplines," executive director Cheryl Young said, "use the time to create new work." The residency program, which began in 1907, is intended to remove all obstacles for the artists so they can focus on work, Young said.
The Alice James Poetry Cooperative Inc, affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington , was awarded NEA grants of $5,000 in 2001, $18,000 in 2002, $25,000 in 2003 and $24,000 this year. Every year, it publishes six books of poetry by authors across the country, selected through annual national and New England regional contests.
"The NEA grants are a godsend because you can apply them to all the expenses of publishing the books," said the cooperative's director, April Ossmann. Unlike other grants that must be used for a specific purpose, NEA grants can be applied for general purposes, she said.
VSA Arts of Maine, a Portland-based organization that helps more than 200,000 disabled people in the state, received $10,000 this year for a cultural access project. VSA Maine will use the money to expand the accessibility of cultural facilities in Maine and New Hampshire , executive director David C. Webster said.
The Latest Numbers Are In — And Incumbents Are Raking In The Money
WASHINGTON -Republican Brian Hamel announced last month that he will challenge Rep. Mike Michaud, D-Me., in the Pine Tree State 's second district this November. He will go up against an incumbent who, nine months before the election, already has raised more than $500,000, according to a recent report filed with the Federal Election Commission.
Hamel is president and chief executive officer of the Loring Development Authority, a state authority that works to recreate jobs lost when Loring Air Force Base closed in 1994.
Hamel is just starting to raise money, while Michaud, a former state Senate president running for his second term in Congress, has more than $300,000 cash on hand, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonprofit organization that monitors campaign finances.
The vast majority -- 65 percent -- of Michaud's contributions came from political action committees, or PACs, the center reported. Labor PACs alone donated $123,000, business PACS contributed $86,000 and groups that target single issues gave Michaud $56,000, the center reported.
Michaud, who for 28 years was a mill worker at the Great Northern Paper Co., received the largest chunk of money from transportation unions, which gave him $43,500, according to the center. Michaud is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure, Small Business and Veterans' Affairs Committees.
Industrial unions contributed $28,000; public-sector unions, $22,250; and building trade unions, $19,000.
"Clearly, this is a candidate relying on a lot of labor support," said Sheila Krumholz, research director at the center.
In Michaud's first congressional race in 2002, labor contributed $300,000 to his campaign.
Hamel meanwhile has begun to create a fundraising network, meeting with state House and Senate members, attending caucuses and calling people to raise money, he said in a phone interview. He is campaigning to improve the economy so that people in the second district can "continue to live where they love to live."
Rep. Thomas H. Allen, D-Me, so far is unopposed in his reelection bid. Allen, who first was elected in 1996, raised more than $278,000 in 2003, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Between October and December, Allen received $54,000 in contributions and spent $61,000 to manage his campaign, the FEC reported.
Nearly 66 percent of Allen's contributions came from individuals and 32 percent from political action committees, the center said. Labor is his biggest PAC supporter, having contributed $38,500; business PACs gave Allen more than $34,500.
Allen is a member of only one committee, Energy and Commerce, which Krumholz described as "a good money maker."
"A lot of money is coming from labor, followed by lawyers and lobbyists, the traditional key supporters of Democratic candidates," she said.
Allen received $15,000 from industrial unions, $9,500 from public-sector unions, $6,500 from transportation unions and $5,000 from building trade unions. He also received $18,500 from lawyers and law firms and $13,800 from retired people, according to the center.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Me., is not up for reelection to her third term until 2006. But like all members of Congress, Snowe must start raising money early. She received more than $134,500 in 2003 and has $386,000 in the bank, according to FEC reports.
Snowe chairs the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and is a member of the Finance, Select Intelligence, and Commerce, Science and Transportation Committees. In the past, she has received significant contributions from financial and insurance companies, as well as from the Wish List, which backs Republicans who support abortion rights.
"Her numbers will be even greater for year end," Krumholz said. "Snowe's Finance Committee is going to be a huge draw."
Sen. Susan Collins, R-Me., was elected to her second, six-year term in 2002. She has raised $58,755 for a 2008 race and has more than $200,000 in her campaign account, the FEC reported. In 2003, political action committees gave her nearly $28,000, according to the FEC.
Collins chairs the Governmental Affairs Committee and is a member of the Armed Services, Special Aging and Joint Economic Committees.
Programs Secure Funding As Deficit Soars
WASHINGTON -Despite the ballooning deficit, Congress recently voted to grant $11 billion to local projects around the country, according to a tally by Sen. John McCain, R.-Ariz.
McCain calls the money "run-of-the-mill pork." But to others, the grants represent much-needed subsidies for important projects.
New Hampshire is slated to receive nearly $264 million for 77 programs and Maine will receive nearly $46.6 million for 60 programs, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, an independent watch group.
One of the winners in the budget process was St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua , which is expected to receive $1.5 million for an Oncology Center of Excellence. The center is part of a $25 million program to add a new 60,000-square-foot ambulatory care program, said Julia Eberhart, the hospital's vice president of planning and marketing.
The oncology center, scheduled to open in 2006, will help people with all types of cancer. "We're hoping our ability to develop an oncology program here will keep more people in the state for their cancer care," Eberhart said in a telephone interview.
Although administrators asked for $3 million in federal money, Eberhart said hospital officials are happy to receive half their request. "We're very appreciative to the congressmen in New Hampshire that gained access to these funds," she said.
Elliot Hospital in Manchester will receive $1 million to renovate the maternity ward and expand neonatal programs. "We're ecstatic about it," said Rick Elwell, senior vice president and chief financial officer. The entire project will cost $4.7 million and is expected to be completed in the next 18 months, said Elwell. Currently the neonatal program is operating at more than 100 percent of capacity, he said, and needs more space.
The Greater Manchester Family YMCA will receive $700,000 towards creating 20 single-room apartments to ease the lack of affordable student housing in the area. The YMCA will be working with the New Hampshire Institute of Art, the University of New Hampshire 's Manchester campus and the New Hampshire Community Technical College to develop the fourth floor of its building, said YMCA President Harold Jordan.
The YMCA rooms have been vacant since 1985 and, for the first time, the building will provide access for disabled people with elevator service to all floors, Jordan said. The renovation should be completed by mid-August, he said.
"We're absolutely thrilled to death," said Jordan . After seeking money from a number of sources, the YMCA was going to cancel the project, he said, until Sen. Judd Gregg, R.-N.H., "stepped up to the plate and applied for the Housing and Urban Development fund."
Berlin Water Works will receive $500,000 to continue water distribution system improvements, said Roland Viens, the superintendent of Boston Water Works. Berlin had a "poor distribution system" with a majority of the pipes corroded, shallow, and old, Viens added.
"It will make a real difference to the city of Berlin ," said Sen. John Sununu, R.-N.H.. "It will upgrade the city and water sewage facility."
Because the community is so far north and as much as 13,000 feet above sea level, the shallow pipes freeze easily, said Viens. Berlin has had a water program that allows residents to run their water during wintertime so the lines won't freeze. This meant that the average customer used 1000 gallons of water a day on an average winter day. Improving the water system will make that unnecessary and lead to water conservation, Viens said.
In Maine , the state Transportation Department will receive $4 million to defray the cost of rebuilding the Waldo-Hancock Bridge , over the Penobscot River between Prospect and Verona . The total cost will be between $65 million and $75 million, said department spokeswoman Carol Morris. Last summer, workers found a corrugated main suspension cable on the 73-year-old bridge.
The cables are needed so that "80,000 pounds can go over the bridge," said project manager Kevin Philbrook, of Cianbro, which is rebuilding the bridge.
"It's good news that we got that money," said Morris. The project is expected to be finished next year.
The University of Southern Maine will receive $650,000 of the $2.4 million it requested to update and renovate science labs, equipment and instructional manuals at its Portland campus. "This modernization will allow us to ensure that our graduates are well prepared as possible to enter a competitive work environment," said spokesman Bob Caswell.
The National Cold Water Aquaculture Center in Franklin will receive $270,000 to initiate a breeding program on Atlantic salmon and other cold water fish, said Wilda Martinez, area director for the North Atlantic Agriculture Research Service.
The budget deficit is projected at $521 billion this year, and President Bush has proposed a bare-bones budget for fiscal 2005 that eliminates or curtails many domestic spending programs. As a result, debate about local projects - pork - is likely to intensify next year.
"Throughout my tenure in the Congress, I have always believed that balancing the federal budget is critical as it requires us to set our national priorities," Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said in a statement.
Congress is "spending like we have a trillion dollar surplus," said Keith Ashdown, vice president of policy and communications at Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Gregg defended funding the local programs. "The federal appropriations bill, which is all non-defense and non-homeland security spending, passed by Congress and signed into law last month stays within the budget caps set by Congress," he said in a statement.
Sununu concurred, saying that Congress stayed within its budget of $786 billion for discretionary spending. "Once we set the level, we worked within that limit to make sure New Hampshire is fairly represented," he said.
LIHEAP Applications Soar
WASHINGTON -Congress members from New Hampshire and Maine are asking the Bush administration to release $100 million in emergency money to help low-income families pay their heating bills during an unusually cold winter.
Congress has appropriated nearly $1.8 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) for fiscal 2004, but it is up to Congress members to request emergency money for their states when the need arises.
Reps. Charles Bass and Jeb Bradley, both New Hampshire Republicans, signed three letters in the past month and a half, two to President Bush and one to Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to release more money because of the freezing weather and inability for families to afford their heating bills.
Maine Republican Sens. Olympia Snowe Susan Collins and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., wrote similar letters to Bush on Jan. 16. Collins, Bradley and Bass are planning to send another letter shortly.
"Everyone's complaining about the cold winter, it's terrible," Bass said. "I'm complaining about it."
The cost of heating oil has skyrocketed in the Northeast this winter because the demand is so high there, according to the Department of Energy. The Northeast-Midwest Institute, a nonprofit research organization, reported that from Nov. 10 to Jan. 12, the price of heating oil jumped 17 cents a gallon in Maine and 18 cents a gallon in New Hampshire .
"People need the help that LIHEAP provides," said Rep. Bradley. "I think the administration recognizes that LIHEAP is an important component of people meeting their energy needs."
Michelle Winder, 40, of Portsmouth, N.H., said she paid $350 to fill her heating oil tank in January and it lasted just three and half weeks. Winder received $824 from LIHEAP for the entire winter, but the money has run out. She also received a 35 percent discount on her electric bill.
Winder and her husband, J.R., both lost their jobs within the past three years, he as an information technology project manager and she as a financial comptroller. The parents of four, they discovered LIHEAP when they were seeking help at the city welfare office to get through the holiday season.
"It's funny we've gone through this experience, professional people making six figures and went to nothing, making $300 a month for a family of six," Winder said in a telephone interview.
Although Winder starts a new job as a senior accountant for a local college Feb. 9, she said the $40,000 salary won't support her family. "Even with my job, we still need help," she said.
LIHEAP, which began subsidizing heating and cooling expenses for low-income families in 1972, provides benefits based on income first and then energy costs, said Celeste Lovett, the program's fuel assistance manager in the Governor's Office of Energy and Community Services in Concord .
New Hampshire is supposed to receive $13.9 million from LIHEAP this year.
Low-income New Hampshire who qualify for the program - they must earn no more than 185 percent of the poverty level -- receive between $120 and $975 a year, and the average household receives $525, Lovett said. Applications have increased 15 percent over the same time last year, she said.
The Rockingham Community Action Program, which processes LIHEAP applications, received 3,132 requests for money as of Jan. 23 than it had by the same time last year; an increase of 395, or 14 percent, said Executive Director Stephen Geller. Forty-three percent of those recipients use heating oil.
Geller attributes the rise to "the poor performance of the economy, lack of jobs, reduced hours for people working, depressed wage levels and all other manifestations of the economy."
"We help an awful lot of people get through the winter by helping them pay for their heating bills. LIHEAP generally pays 40 percent of their heating bills through the winter," said Kathleen McCosh, fuel program manager for the Tri-County Community Action Program, which services the Coos, Carroll and Grafton areas. Since Dec. 1, the program has processed 85 percent as many applications as it did all last year, she said. The agency has already spent roughly half of the money it received: $1.3 million of $2.2 million.
In 2001, a study by the Campaign for Home Energy Assistance, an advocacy group for LIHEAP recipients, found that 32.9 percent of low-income households in New Hampshire were receiving assistance from the program, while 68 percent of low-income households in Maine were.
In Maine , the amount of LIHEAP money distributed to each home depends on size of the household and its income, said Dan Simpson, spokesman for the Maine State Housing Authority. The total number of applications expected for this year is 47,000, approximately 2,000 more than last year, he said. Maine households that receive money from the program are granted between $85 and $510 a year, with an average grant of $449.
Maine is expected to receive $23 million from LIHEAP in the fiscal year that began Oct. 1, $20.7 million of which will go for fuel assistance, and the rest for weatherization, according to Simpson. The total appropriation is just $150,000 more than last year.
"It's not much more," said Rep. Thomas H. Allen, D-Maine. "As a percentage, $150,000.is not very much money."
Twenty-three percent of Bangor Hydroelectric Company's 85,000 residential customers are eligible for LIHEAP assistance this year, up slightly from 22 percent in 2002, according to Alicia Card, supervisor of the customer support staff.
"Every year, our delegation fights to get adequate funding for the program," Allen said.
"During a winter as brutal as this one in Maine , LIHEAP is often the only program that keeps the heat on for our most vulnerable citizens," Sen. Snowe said in a statement.
Pine State Fares Well in Alcohol Related Crashes
WASHINGTON—Two-thirds of the 2,335 children 14 and younger who died in alcohol-related car crashes from 1997 to 2002 were riding in cars driven by the drinking driver, sometimes a parent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“What was most shocking was that two of every three children killed in alcohol-related crashes were riding with the drinking driver,” Wendy J. Hamilton, the national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving said at a press conference Tuesday. “Sometimes that driver was a parent, another relative, so-called family friend, a neighbor or a caregiver.”
Of the 1,588 children who died under such circumstances during those six years, only two of them—one in 1999 and one in 2001—died in New Hampshire, according to statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
New Hampshire officials attributed that low number to the state’s tough drunk driving statute and to its safety education programs.
Nationally, car accidents are the leading cause of death among people five to 34-years-old, according to the CDC’s Office of Statistics and Programming. “In fact, the Institute of Medicine has called injuries the last great plague of the young,” said Dr. Sue Binder, director of the CDC’s Injury Center. “At CDC, what we know is that when you hear about incidents over and over again, you have a public health issue.”
Peter Thomson, the coordinator of the New Hampshire Highway Safety Agency, praised the New Hampshire law for the state’s comparatively low number of alcohol- related deaths. Ten years ago, New Hampshire became the seventh state to pass a .08 law, which defines a blood alcohol content level at or above .08 as illegal. For those under 21, the maximum allowable level is .02.
According to MADD’s Child Endangerment Report released Tuesday, New Hampshire law states that if a driver is intoxicated or under the influence of drugs and has a passenger under 16, their driving privileges will be revoked for the maximum seven years. In addition, the driver will not get the privileges back until participating in a seven-day DWI offender program or a seven-day residential intervention program.
MADD offered tips on how to keep children safe, such as enforcing “child passenger safety laws, seat belt laws and adding drivers’ license points for child restraint violations.”
The CDC found that only a third of the children killed while riding with a drunk driver were restrained at the time of the accident. “These drivers not only put their child passengers at greater risk by driving in an impaired state, but they are also less likely to make sure that the child is buckled up,” the CDC’s Binder said.
New Hampshire has a state program in which a robot, Mr. Smiley, riding a motorcycle and discussing issues such as seat belt safety, visits elementary school classrooms. The 30-minute program reaches 16,000 to 17,000 students each year
“If you can get a youngster to understand the reasons for wearing a seat belt and get them to wear it, it becomes a life choice for them,” Thomson said.
He said his agency also “funds any local community in the state that is interested in doing alcohol overtime” by paying officers at the rate of time and a half.
Last summer, the agency took part in priority dedicated patrols every weekend from Memorial Day to Labor Day, working with state troopers, local police and county sheriffs to patrol counties unannounced. The saturation patrol program in Dover cost the state agency $369.
This summer, instead of patrolling by county, it will be done by corridor, such as Route 1 from Seabrook through Hampton to Portsmouth and the Maine border. Another corridor will be Route 16 from Newington to Dover to Rochester and up to Gorham.
