New Haven Independent

Joined by noted economist Nicholas Perna and regional officials, she told a news conference that the nation’s economic crisis is the worst since the Great Depression and the stimulus package is the way for the state and the nation to work its way out of it.

“With our economy in crisis, businesses are in the red and families are on the brink. We have an obligation to act quickly and boldly to restore out great promise,” she said to a gathering of press, local officials and students at the Connecticut One-Stop Center, part of the educational complex that resides in a former shopping center on the Boulevard.

She said she wasn’t “going to read anything” into the fact that not one Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives voted for the stimulus package when it passed that body, or that the leadership of the Senate is against it. “They will have to answer to their constituents,” she said.

Republicans argue that the bill is too laden with pork barrel projects that won’t produce jobs in the next year.

Again and again, DeLauro hit her main theme Monday: The stimulus package was the best way out of the economic mess that Obama inherited from the Bush Administration.

“You never have a piece of legislation that has everything you want,” she said.

DeLauro was more than 20 minutes late to the late-morning press conference, and blamed Amtrak and the Acela Express. “I took the 5 a.m. train and that broke down and then went on the 6 a.m. train and that broke down,” she said tiredly. But she was soon in overdrive, however, citing savings in jobs and homes that could come from the stimulus package, known formally as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

“This is a critical time for Connecticut and our country. It is about helping a middle class hit hard by stagnant wages, rising health-care costs and a financial market in crisis.”

She was introduced by William Villano, the executive director of the Workforce Alliance, which improves the quality of the workforce through education, training and skills developmentt.

The region lost 30,000 jobs last year, with 20,000 of them being lost in just the last two months of 2008, Villlano said. The average work week for those who have jobs has dropped to 33 hours, with the resultant loss of income, he said.

“The stimulus package could not come at a better time,” he said.

Perna, who had been the chief economist for Fleet Bank and who freelances as an economist for firms like Webster Bank, said the current economic situation is bad, but there might be better news ahead later this year. He said he was on Gov. M Jodi Rell’s economic advisory board, so he wasn’t speaking as a political partisan.

“The economy should stop deteriorating in the second half of this year, if we are lucky,” he said. (Click on the play arrow to watch his comments.)

The current recession, which he said began in December 2007, has been the longest and deepest in 60 years, but even at its lowest, “it doesn’t hold a candle to the 1930s.”

He said his prediction of an improvement during the late summer or fall was incumbent on the stimulus package being passed. “It could be bigger and it could be sooner,” but it’s what’s there, he said of the project jolt to the economy.

One of the package’s provisions that Perna discussed has to do with COBRA, the insurance plan that allows people who are no longer working to buy coverage at the same cost as their former employer, plus a 2 percent fee. That means people who may living on unemployment compensation has to kick in an amount that might be two or three times more than they’re used to.

“For some people, it’s COBRA or the rent” he said. Under the stimulus package’s provision, the federal government would underwrite two-thirds of the cost of COBRA.

“This bill may not be perfect, but let’s get it out there,” Perna urged.

David Kooris, the Connecticut director of the Regional Plan Association, said the plan would have shovels in the ground within 90 days and would have an immediate impact on the lives of people who are put to work.

Perna cautioned that even after the economy comes back, and the stock market would be an indicator of that, nobody should expect that housing prices would rise as quickly as they had during the past decade or so.

Among the relief expected in Connecticut from the stimulus package would be:

• An increase of $25 a week in jobless pay for 277,766 people;
• An increase in food stamp benefits of $152 for 238,000 people;
• $391.35 million for highways and bridges (House bill);
• $85.11 million for transit capital improvements;
• $71.11 million for the state clean water revolving fund (House bill);
• $97 million for Title I education costs over two years
• $117 million for school and $58 million for college construction;
• $1.2 billion in federal funds for state Medicaid costs over nine quarters.

After the presentation, DeLauro said she was one of about 50 people from both political parties invited to the White House to watch the Super Bowl with President Obama. She said she was a little disappointed about no Buffalo wings being served and the fact that neither the Giants, Jets nor Patriots had made it to the Super Bowl, but said the president and his family were cordial and took time to speak with all the guests.

Obama has a reputation for keeping his emotions in check. But he is a rabid Pittsburgh Steelers fan. DeLauro was asked if he kept his composure when the Steelers came from behind in the last seconds to win the game.

Absolutely, she said.

Click on the play arrow for Tom Ficklin’s video of the full press conference.