Homeless in Arizona

I suspect most of these handouts are unconstitutional. But the city, county and state governments are not complaining and forcing the Feds to obey the U.S. Constitution because they get a cut of the loot.

Source

Chandler to be creative in pursuit of funds

By Maria Polletta The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Dec 14, 2012 8:15 AM

With the $787 billion stimulus package in the country’s rearview mirror, the nation’s financial future is unclear given a seemingly insurmountable federal debt coupled with the threat of spending cuts and tax hikes in January unless Congress intervenes.

The financial future of cities and towns is just as murky.

“Citizens are concerned. They hear about the ‘fiscal cliff’ all the time. They’re very frustrated,” Chandler Mayor Jay Tibshraeny said. “We’d like this to quit being the Number 1 issue our citizens are worrying about, and we’d like to see (Congress) just get it accomplished.”

Despite its residents’ anxiety about what’s to come, Chandler is confident that it will be able to accomplish many of its project goals for 2013, even without the aid of the stimulus package that resulted in more than $22 million in city improvements.

Though the city acknowledged that funding its ideas will require creativity, city spokesman Jim Phipps said after President Barack Obama’s re-election that he “couldn’t find (a city official) with major apprehensions as to what the next four years will bring.”

“Even when times were good, we were looking for different sources of revenue,” said Dan Cook, Chandler transportation manager. “We look at federal funding, local funding, grants, bonds, and we’re going to continue looking at funding mechanisms the city can afford, since paying interest costs you.”

The Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act, signed into law in July, has “given people assurance that at least some federal money would be there,” Cook said. MAP-21 will fund surface-transportation programs at more than $105 billion for fiscal 2013 and 2014.

That initiative aligns with one of Chandler’s priorities in the coming year: streets and roads. Other priorities are public safety, parks and neighborhood-related improvements, Tibshraeny said.

“It’s real nuts-and-bolts, real fundamental things that our citizens rely on,” he said. “Those are the kinds of services we’ll be providing.”

Some upcoming Chandler infrastructure projects that will utilize federal funding:

- The widening of Ocotillo Road from Arizona Avenue to McQueen Road will use $5 million in Highway Safety Improvement Program funds.

- The Galveston Street-Price Freeway pedestrian bridge over Loop 101 will use $3.7million in Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality grant funds.

- An Automated Weather Observing System at Chandler Municipal Airport, which will give pilots weather reports from miles away, will use $350,000 in Federal Aviation Administration grant funds. The city also will be seeking funding for aircraft parking-ramp and taxiway-lighting improvements.

- The widening of either Gilbert or McQueen roads south of Ocotillo Road will use $4.5 million in Surface Transportation Program funds.

One area of federal-funding-related concern for the city is public- and affordable-housing programs. The city expects “to face challenges from anticipated cuts that will impact the city’s work and the families and agencies that we serve.”

Other ongoing projects on Chandler’s radar that aren’t currently federally funded include upgrading former county roads in southeast Chandler to the city’s arterial street standards and replacing the copper lines in the city’s traffic-signal system with fiber optics.

The city also has been working to improve existing parks and design new ones. Construction for Roadrunner Park, a neighborhood park near Germann and Gilbert roads, will begin in the spring, according to park planning superintendent Don Tolle.

No matter the funding source, the city has tried to adopt a measured, forward-looking strategy as it works to secure and allocate monies, Phipps said.

“It’s a tough line to walk sometimes, because you’ve got the demand of people saying, ‘I want something, I want something, I want something,’ but you perhaps don’t have the O&M (operations and maintenance) budget,” he said. “We might have money for construction, but if we add something that we can’t maintain after we build it, it’s a problem. So, we’re pretty religious about sticking to that philosophy.”