More Ideas on How to Spend Your Economic Stimulus Check

1. Since the next generation(s) will be the ones saddled with the older generations debt, it seems only fair that we should help them out with current college tuition or paying down student loans or saving for college in the future. I don't have kids myself, but I have three nieces and two nephews. One is in college, two are teens and two are under 6 years old. I plan to donate a portion of economic stimulus package to my brother and sister for the express purpose of paying off some of the current or future college tuition for their children.

2. I also plan to use a portion of my economic stimulus check to pay ahead on my mortgage. We have a traditional mortgage that allows pre-payment without penalty, and in doing so it has lowered the overall amount of interest we pay each month going forward. So I will just add some to the mix. The less interest you have to pay on college loans or mortgages in the long run will allow you to put more into the economy later on.

3. We should figure out a way to direct some of the Keep it in VT funds to affordable housing with respect to getting at the root causes of the current economic "slowdown"  (bad mortgages...).

4. Community Organized FireWood Co-op: Bring in large qty of logwood at wholesale rates to a central location, pay to cut/split/process it; every member just has to figure a way to get it to their home, or the co-op rents a bio-diesel fueled dumptruck. Members get the wood for a significant discount over "retail split/delivered" costs. Firewood is ridiculously expensive around here if you ask me, mostly b/c the market is driven by lots of 2nd homers who buy small amounts. Local, renewable, community-supported, affordable b/c of economies of scale with community building social value to boot.

5. Create an investment fund that offers zero-interest loans, education and supply-chain connections to enable farmers to learn how to transition their horse-power back to horses, ox-teams and man-power. Might sound silly, but I learned in Cuba about their success (govt forced it to happen, people didn't like it, but they had no choice when russian oil stopped flowing). There are people in Vermont who have these skills and could make this happen. This is probably a real reach b/c many will think this is a step backwards but there is lots of evidence that Cuba's agr-productivity went up b/c of this.

6. Create a co-op buying group for solar panels or solar hot water systems (kinda hard to keep this $ local, but the money not spent on energy afterwards can be kept local)

7. Cover our school rooftops with solar panels and solar hot water/bio-mass heating system.

8. Build a 26 foot tall steel-reinforced concrete wall across the north and south entrances to the valley on Rt 100 and start charging tolls on non-resident traffic, $ goes into a fund for local energy production projects. (this is maybe my favorite, but that's b/c I just watched the horrible movie I Am Legend :-)

9. Create a fund and team up with MRGlen and put up windmills on their ridgelines; negotiate a deal with GM Power to pay back the fund (the people who create the fund) $.18 per kwh, until the fund is paid back with interest. Once the fund is paid back, the towns split the revenue based on the proportion of money paid into the original fund by residents of each town. GMCR just got a similar deal with help from the state and GM Power. We are about to cover the roof of our coffee production buildings with PV panels, the state is paying for half the $700k cost, and GM Power agreed to pay GMC $.18 per kwh for all power generated that is not used on site. That's a phenomenally high rate compared to most net-metering. That GM Power is doing this is a surprising "ahah" for me, b/c I don't really think GM Power is that green. A new opportunity seems to present itself.

10. Make a Donation toward a Community Farm.