Utah's stimulus czar embraces his job

Mike Mower has a new title these days in addition to being the state's planning coordinator — stimulus czar.

He's responsible for keeping an eye on the more than $1.6 billion in federal funds coming into state coffers as part of the massive federal economic stimulus package.

It's a job Mower has embraced, as evidenced by his eagerness to explain how the money is being used. The title, though, seems to be a source of embarrassment.

"That's what the feds refer to it as," Mower said, cringing a little when a reporter refers to him as Utah's stimulus czar. "It is not a self-designated title. Let me be very clear."

While other states, including New Mexico, have made new hires to handle the influx of funds, Utah chose to use existing staff. So the job fell to Mower, who usually spends his time planning for the state's long-term future.

Now, instead of pondering, for example, how growth will impact state resources in the next decade, Mower has had to plunge into the 1,000-plus page American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and the restrictions and regulations starting to come out of Washington, D.C.

He and other state officials, led by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s budget director, John Nixon, already have scrambled to sort out where federal stimulus dollars could be used to plug Utah's $1 billion budget shortfall during the recently completed 2009 legislative session.

But the work of accounting for the fast-tracked stimulus spending is just beginning. Plus there's more money available to the states through competitive grant programs, including some for businesses seeking to boost their broadband infrastructure.

Just a few days ago, Mower said the state finally received a first set of federal agency guidelines for the money. Yet to come are the details of how the state should calculate the results of the stimulus package, even though the initial report is due soon.

As required, the state has set up a web site, recovery .utah.gov, to track the funds. The site, which features a picture of Utah's GOP governor, links to recovery.gov, the Obama administration's explanation of the program.

Mower is loath to talk about the stimulus funds in political terms and declines to answer a question about the irony of a Democratic president pushing a program that helped bail out one of the most Republican states in the country.

Utah's GOP-dominated Legislature grumbled for weeks about what they saw as strings attached to the stimulus funds but in the end took everything offered except for some $64 million set aside for increased unemployment benefits.