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Humble food stamps may deliver the single biggest bang for the stimulus buck, boosting the economy by $1.73 for each dollar spent

April 27

Growth in food stamp allotment boosts economy

Newsday.com (Long Island, NY)
Elizabeth Moore

It was not exactly a shock-and-awe moment when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act entered the life of Mercy Haven driver Andrew Kurdziel this month.

Kurdziel, of Islip, who is disabled and lives in housing run by the mental health agency, saw his April food-stamp allotment grow from $176 to $200 as a result of the federal stimulus package approved in February. Every little bit helps, but the food stamps were still gone by mid-month, handed over to cashiers at his local ShopRite and Pathmark stores.

“It was like a pebble in an ocean,” said Kurdziel, who clips coupons and dines on chicken and canned tuna, but needs special foods for his diabetes.

Still, humble food stamps may deliver the single biggest bang for the stimulus buck, boosting the economy by $1.73 for each dollar spent, according to an analysis last year by Moody’s Economy.com. And that was just one of the places the money started to flow this month as the vast machinery of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act cranks into gear.

Some $1.8 billion had been spent in New York by the middle of this month, Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said - $1.7 billion going to cover Medicaid costs for the state and counties.

And the first “shovel-ready” project in New York State got under way last Monday as work began on a culvert repair job in Steuben County, in the Finger Lakes region.

“We’re very happy to get that project,” said Jeff Hanlon, president of Slate Hill Constructors, a former Long Islander who put twice his planned crew on the project because he has so little else for them to do. The state last week solicited bids for Long Island’s first shovel-ready project, the reconstruction of Route 112 in Brookhaven.

That job, to be awarded June 4, is estimated to cost $56 million, but if Steuben is any guide, it may come in for less: Slate Hill bid $733,831 on the culvert job - 17 percent less than the $885,000 the state expected to pay, DiNapoli noted.

Meanwhile, there have been a flurry of meetings around the region as members of Congress and state officials explain the billions in federal funds still to come, and how to find and apply for them.

Some kinks remain.

At a green-jobs fair at Farmingdale State College last week, a representative of the federal Department of Energy explained that the agency has $400 million in discretionary energy efficiency block-grant money to give out, but hasn’t decided who can apply for it.

At the state Labor Department and its local investment boards, officials haven’t yet decided exactly how to connect “disconnected youth” and unemployed veterans with the businesses that will get tax credits for hiring them under the stimulus bill.

But state stimulus czar Timothy Gilchrist told business leaders gathered at a meeting hosted by Vision Long Island Friday that his recovery cabinet will soon supply many more details in a handbook to be published on the state’s Web site, economicrecovery.ny.gov.

“The governor wants us to get every dollar we can out of this program,” said Gilchrist, who oversees all stimulus spending for infrastructure and transportation.

Long Islanders may notice the boost in their food-stamp allotment less than residents of other parts of the country, which have a much lower cost of living but receive exactly the same food-stamp allotment, said Maria Dosso, spokeswoman for Nassau-Suffolk Law Services, a nonprofit that advocates for the poor.

“Obviously for some Americans it’s going to be a bigger deal than for others,” she said. “But everything helps. It’s made a difference.”