GO: That's the encouraging word from the state, regarding some of the work stalled by December's freeze in state payments to bond-funded projects.
The sale of General Obligation (or G.O.) bonds in March and April has freed up more than $13 billion for state projects, many of them in Monterey County.
Last December, the state's Pooled Money Investment Board froze most of its disbursements because the Legislature had not yet passed a budget, and the state couldn't sell its bonds. With stocks plummeting, California was, in a word, broke.
The budget's eight-month-late passage in February allowed the state Treasurer's Office to start selling bonds again, but cash flow still remained too low to fully re-open the funding spigot.
Locally, environmental and science projects stalled, and the county even joined a lawsuit against the state.
But G.O. bond sales in March and April, along with two Public Works Board bond sales in April, allowed the Treasurer to re-start dozens of local projects, including:
-A grant to the Monterey Peninsula Community College District for library renovation planning;
-Nine CSU-Monterey Bay projects, including infrastructure improvements, traffic and stormwater upgrades and library equipment;
-A mortgage assistance grant for the San Lucas low-cost housing development in South County;
-Two grants for the Youth Center Building renovations in the city of Monterey;
-A street resurfacing project in the city of Del Rey Oaks;
-A Prop. 40 grant for the Los Coches Adobe Rehabilitation project in the city of Soledad;
-Eleven grants (mostly Prop. 40) for Monterey County Parks improvements;
-Prop. 84 and Prop. 40 grants for the Thorne Road Bridge Replacement Project, replacing existing culverts impeding migrating steelhead on the Arroyo Seco River with a fish-friendly bridge;
-A cultural endowment grant for the Japanese Schoolhouse Rehabilitation Project in Castroville; and
-A grant to improve facilities security for Monterey-Salinas Transit system.
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