Politics on the Hudson

   In a 10-page letter to President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph Biden this week, Gov. David Paterson proposes how New York and the nation could benefit from billions of dollars he wants them to include in their economic-stimulus package. In an $800 billion package, $500 billion would be for Medicaid, unemployment insurance, food stamps, welfare assistance, child care and flexible education block grants to states.

   The remaining $300 billion would be for investments in infrastructure. For each $1 billion invested, an estimated 30,000 are created That would mean 351,000 jobs in New York, Paterson wrote. New York has at least 1,922 infrastructure projects totaling $11.7 billion that can be ready to begin within six months of receiving federal money.

   This is the breakdown of ready-to-go projects in New York:

  —Transportation infrastructure, 382 projects, $3.66 billion

  —Wastewater infrastructure, 92, $1.35 billion

  —Clean water infrastrucutre, 7, $132.6 million

  —State parks infrastrucutre, 31, $35.3 million

  —K-12 school consruction, 737, $966.1 million

  —Higher ed school construction, $245, $2.64 billion.

  —Affordable houisng, 202, $192.97 million

  —Broadband infrastructure, 9, $8.46 million

  —Health information technology, 7, $1.3 billion

  —Energy infrastrucutre and green jobs, 210, $1.42 billion.

(AP photo)

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