Bonding bills
According to Wikepedia, the Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act in June 1933 in response to the Great Depression. It built large-scale public works such as dams, bridges, hospitals, and schools. Its goals were to spend $3.3 billion in the first year, and $6 billion in all, to provide employment, stabilize purchasing power, and help revive the economy. Most of the spending came in two waves in 1933–35, and again in 1938. Originally called the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, it was renamed the Public Works Administration in 1935 and shut down in 1944. The PWA spent over $7 billion in contracts to private construction firms that did the actual work. It created an infrastructure that generated national and local pride in the 1930s and remains vital eight decades later.
Minnesota bonding bills are like that. They provide much needed money to build or repair our infrastructure and fund public spaces that benefit our communities. The Legislature recently passed a bonding bill that included some major local projects. Our own local representatives Marion O’Neill, Joe McDonald and senator Bruce Anderson voted against it. Fortunately for us, enough other people recognized the value in building these projects and providing the revenue. One of the many wonderful things about these projects is that they put people to work who are currently collecting public funds through unemployment. The income earned results in income tax dollars that go right back into our public coffers. Even more important, they keep roofs over our families heads, food on their table, insurance in place that will cover their families if they get sick. And they have money to spend in local restaurants and local stores, providing income to businesses who are also hurting right now. Bonding bills are not only good when our government has money to spend, they are even better when our people don’t.
This reminds me of a line in the play Hello Dolly! “Money is like manure. It’s not worth a thing unless you spread it around, encouraging young things to grow”.
