How the stimulus package will help Maine

Direct from the White House Media Affairs Office, here's a breakdown of how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will help Maine. I'll have more on this later, after a 2pm press conference call with Larry Summers.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan is a nationwide effort to create jobs, jumpstart growth and transform our economy for the 21^st century. Across the country, this plan will help businesses create jobs and families afford their bills while laying a foundation for future economic growth in key areas like health care, clean energy, education and a 21^st century infrastructure. In Maine, this plan will deliver immediate, tangible impacts, including:

 ·         Creating or saving 16,300 jobs over the next two years. Jobs created will be in a range of industries from clean energy to health care, with over 90% in the private sector. [Source: White House Estimate based on Romer and Bernstein, “The Job Impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.” January 9, 2009.]

 ·         Providing a making work pay tax cut of up to $1,000 for 550,000 workers and their families. The plan will make a down payment on the President’s Making Work Pay tax cut for 95% of workers and their families, designed to pay out immediately into workers’ paychecks. [Source: White House Estimate based on IRS Statistics of Income]

 ·         Making 17,000 families eligible for a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to make college affordable. By creating a new $2,500 partially refundable tax credit for four years of college, this plan will give 3.8 million families nationwide – and 17,000 families in Maine – new assistance to put college within their reach. [Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities analysis of U.S. Census data]

 ·         Offering an additional $100 per month in unemployment insurance benefits to 71,000 workers in Maine who have lost their jobs in this recession, and providing extended unemployment benefits to an additional 12,000 laid-off workers. [Source: National Employment Law Project]   

 ·         Providing funding sufficient to modernize at least 38 schools in Maine so our children have the labs, classrooms and libraries they need to compete in the 21^st century economy. [Source: White House Estimate]

 In addition to this immediate assistance for Maine, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan will help transform our economy by:

 ·         Doubling renewable energy generating capacity over three years, creating enough renewable energy to power 6 million American homes.

 ·         Computerizing every American’s health record in five years, reducing medical errors and saving billions of dollars in health care costs.

 ·         Launching the most ambitious school modernization program on record, sufficient to upgrade 10,000 schools.

·         Enacting the largest investment increase in our nation’s roads, bridges and mass transit systems since the creation of the national highway system in the 1950s.