GARDINER -- With $300 or $600 extra, Jenna Reese expects to pay down debt from a car and credit card purchases.

"I might as well," the A1 Diner server said last week.

She's not alone, according to a random sample of Gardiner residents, nearly all of whom said last week they would use money paid to them as part of a $150 billion economic stimulus package not to buy new products, but to relieve festering debts.

The Internal Revenue Service begins rolling out tax rebate payments Monday. As a result, those who file a 2007 tax return will receive $300 to $600. Married couples could receive up to $1,200 and parents can receive $300 extra for each child younger than 17.

Reese jokingly recommended that her customers put their stimulus payments toward tips for wait staff.

"That'll help stimulate the economy around here," she said.

Sitting next door in the A1 Community Market and Cafe, Amber Veregge of Gardiner said she would welcome her tax rebate.

"I am going to pay off my credit cards," she said. "The money that's coming will just pay the bills."

As people in downtown Gardiner looked ahead to receiving payments from the U.S. Treasury, nearly all said they would use the money to pay down debt.

"Paying that debt down will obviously make things better for the individual," said Steve Lovejoy, an assistant business professor at the University of Maine at Augusta. "It won't do much to stimulate the economy, though."

As he painted a storefront on Water Street in Gardiner, David Ross also said his economic stimulus money would help to pay some outstanding bills.

"With gas prices the way they are, everything going up, you've got to catch up on stuff," he said.

"That hurt a lot of people this winter."

Recently laid off from his job with Waste Management, Brian Holland, of Gardiner, doubts the payments will have their desired effect.

He, too, said he planned to pay bills with the rebate money.

"I don't see it helping the economy," he said. "We've lost a lot of jobs here in America. I pray everyday that I can find a full-time job."

Lovejoy doubted the stimulus package's effectiveness for two reasons: structure and timing. "I think it could have been better designed," he said. "The people most apt to spend the money are people in lower income levels."

Lovejoy recommended weighting rebate payments so lower-income residents receive a greater share of the stimulus money. The package is structured to issue higher rebates to those with higher incomes and tax bills.

"Lower-income people will tend to spend it more quickly because it will allow them to buy things they hadn't been able to buy before," Lovejoy said. The IRS' decision to issue rebate checks after processing tax returns may also have limited the stimulus package's effectiveness, he said.

"If it could have been earlier, it would have been a help as well," Lovejoy said. "The further out it is -- it's like anything else -- the sooner you take corrective action, the better."

Those interviewed in downtown Gardiner appeared to be following the advice of certified financial planner Bert Languet, vice president of Golden Pond Wealth Management in Waterville.

"I suggest that they take that money and if they have debt, pay it off," he said.

Otherwise, invest it, Languet said.

Couples with children would be wise, he said, to put tax rebate money into savings programs such as 529 tuition plans. If recipients do choose to spend their rebate money on consumer goods, Robert Pangman doubts the U.S. economy would benefit.

"If they give you $600 and you go to Wal-Mart, you're buying Chinese stuff," he said while sipping a beer at The Depot. "The economic stimulus is for what? It's for China?"

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, Ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com