Stop the Pork’s “Weekly Waste Watch” is your one-stop destination for examples of government waste that has been uncovered by John Kline and House Republicans. Each week, we’ll identify a new example of how Washington is wasting your hard-earned money.
(Sept. 21, 2010) – The city of Los Angeles received a total of $594 million in taxpayer funds from the stimulus bill. Two of L.A.’s city departments, Public Works and Transportation, received a combined total of $111 million – nearly 20 percent of the city’s allotment. Among the projects completed with the money were street and bridge resurfacing, sidewalk and storm drain rebuilding, and bicycle safety grate constructing. According to the city controller, Wendy Greuel, the Department of Public Works created just eight total jobs, while the Department of Transportation created only nine jobs, for a grand total of 17 jobs. Meaning each temporary job cost taxpayers $6.5 million to create with no guarantee that they would result in permanent employment.
(Sept. 14, 2010) – Using $100,000 in stimulus funding, the Missouri Valley Community Action Agency held the “Show Me Social Justice Film Festival” last weekend. The film festival, held in Warrensburg, included 21 films on issues ranging from poverty to health care, food and wine tastings, lectures, workshops, and a craft sale.
However, the Missouri Department of Social Services indicated that using federal dollars to fund a festival is not permitted for a Community Services Block Grant, which is how the Missouri Valley Community Action Agency received the $100,000. Scott Rowson, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Social Services, said, “The event has kind of exceeded the extent of the original grant proposal. It’s not really something that can be permissible.” Mr. Rowson went on to say that the State of Missouri would seek to recover the misspent funds.
With Missouri’s current unemployment rate at 9.2%, misspending $100,000 on an un-permissible film festival, won’t create the jobs Missourians need.
(Aug. 10, 2010) – San Diego State University received nearly half a million dollars in taxpayer-provided Stimulus funds to research whether creative alcohol labeling and messaging could affect alcohol consumption habits. The study, “Disclosing Contents of Drinks: Experimental Test on Natural Consumption Behavior,” was awarded last September and will eventually lead to researchers testing messages on individuals at local bars.
James Lange, lead researcher on the project, was “surprised” that his grant made a list of 100 wasteful Stimulus projects uncovered by Senator Tom Coburn and Senator John McCain this August, and it was “unclear” to him what their criticism was.
According to the Obama Administration’s own Stimulus website, the purported goals of the $862 billion bill were to “create new jobs” and “spur economic growth.” To date, the San Diego State project has created just 2.86 jobs. Meanwhile, California’s unemployment rate stands at 12.3%, well above the national average of 9.5%.
(July 19, 2010) – The U.S. Forest Service is providing $490,000 in stimulus funds to the Nevada Division of Forestry’s “Nursery Greening Project.” Specifically, the stimulus project will provide 2,500 trees at no cost to nonprofits and government entities for planting on public lands throughout Clark County in southern Nevada. In addition, the funding will cover the cost of tree care training classes for Spanish-speaking “green-industry” workers. Oddly, now does not seem to be a good time to plant trees in southern Nevada. According to Rep. Dean Heller (R-NV), “Funding tree planting during record drought conditions in Nevada not only is poor use of federal dollars, but makes very little sense.”
The Nevada State Forest Service says the project will create or retain “several” jobs. Unfortunately, as Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union points out, the free tree project will only create temporary employment, “at best.” And jobs don’t even seem to be a priority of the project. Rather, the stated intent is to “increase public awareness of tree benefits, provide tree-care education, involve citizen volunteers in urban forestry programs and increase tree planting.”
(July 14, 2010) – The National Science Foundation (NSF) is spending $762,372 in taxpayer stimulus funds for a project called “Dance Draw” at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dance Draw involves students attaching wireless mice to their chest and wrists and dancing to form abstract geometric shapes on a computer. NSF awarded the grant because they considered it, “computer science research.” Brian Balfor of the Civitas Institute in Raleigh, highlighted the program as one of the worst stimulus projects in North Carolina. According to Balfor, the project only created 1.5 jobs. Instead of spending over half a million dollars per dance job, the money “could have funded sixteen school teacher jobs.”
(June 29, 2010) – The General Services Administration (GSA) is spending $51 million in taxpayer Stimulus funds to “green” the 14-story Poff Federal Building in Roanoke, Va. The renovations to the building would include replacing the windows and installing a new heating and cooling system. Incredibly, this $51 million renovation will cost four times as much as it cost to construct the entire building in 1975, just 35 years ago. Worse, the $51 million in renovations aren’t even enough to entice the building’s largest tenant. The Department of Veteran Affairs, which occupies over 50 percent of the Poff Building, is currently looking for new offices. Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), who represents Roanoke, called the project a “waste of taxpayer dollars.” Clearly exasperated, Rep. Goodlatte went on to ask, “how can the General Services Administration spend nearly $51 million of the taxpayers’ money to renovate the Poff Federal Building and yet not address the needs of the building’s tenants?”
(June 22, 2010) – When Chevrolet releases their new hybrid “Volt” later this year, 15,000 early buyers will receive a nice present from President Obama’s Stimulus Plan: $2,000 in taxpayer money. The administration plans to give the initial Volt buyers a $2,000 240-volt home electric charging station paid courtesy of the taxpayer-funded Stimulus. This program could end up paying for up to 15,000 home electric charging stations. Of note, the Volt can be charged using a standard 110-volt home wall outlet. The 240-volt stations the Obama Administration wants to give away just allows the car to be charged quicker. The Volt, expected to cost $40,000 when it first comes out. No word yet if millionaires who purchase Volts will also have the taxpayers pick up the tab for their charging stations.
(June 14, 2010) – A recent headline in the New York Times rhetorically asked if it were possible for a Stimulus project to not create any jobs. The answer, according to the inspector general at the Department of Energy, was yes. Under the Democrats’ Stimulus, $3.1 billion in grants were authorized for state energy programs, of which $126 million was allocated for Florida. The authorization required states to spend the money by April 2011, and ensure that the funds be spent on preserving and/or creating jobs, saving energy, and increasing renewable energy. However, instead of preserving or creating jobs, Florida used $8.3 million of their funds pay off a backlog of people who already completed work for the state. Because the projects had already been completed, the money literally created ZERO jobs. Yet, somehow the Department of Energy still approved the spending, breaking the very rules they required for the program.
(June 8, 2010) – The U.S. Forest Service will spend $11.1 million in Stimulus funds to clean up the inactive Blue Ledge Mine in the Siskiyou Mountains of Northern California that has not been fully operational since 1919. While cleaning an old mine has its merits, some residents who live downstream in the community of Joe Bar have expressed concerns that the project could contaminate their water supply.
Additionally, the company awarded the project will hire little more than 20 local workers for this short-term project. Meaning, the Federal government will spend $555,000 per job created—all of which will be temporary. California’s current unemployment rate is 12.6 percent, making it the third highest state unemployment rate in the country. One would hope that an $11.1 million Stimulus project would not only create more permanent jobs in California, but do so at less than $555,000 per job.
(May 25, 2010) – The John Weld Peck Federal Building in Cincinnati is receiving a $34 million window makeover. Among other things, the Peck building is having its older windows replaced with new double-paned, argon-filled, fritted models designed to let in more light and less heat.
This project, which is Ohio’s single largest Stimulus project, will produce 150 jobs and expects to save the government $250,000 a year in energy costs. Sounds great, right? Let’s do the math…
150 jobs at a project cost of $34 million equals $226,666 in federal spending on each job created. And while the government is saving $250,000 on annual energy costs due to the windows and other energy efficiencies being installed, that’s not quite as impressive as it sounds. It will take 136 years for the government to make a full return on its $34 million investment. That’s not until 2146!
Ohio’s unemployment rate is 10.6 percent. One would expect that the largest Stimulus project in Ohio would not only create more jobs, but do so at less than $226,666 a piece.
(May 18, 2010) – A local Tennessee construction company was awarded $38.6 million in Stimulus funds to widen Highway 66 in Sevier County, Tennessee, last summer. Due to a barrage of concrete barricades and piles of rubble, store entrances and signs along the highway have been blocked or made difficult to see. As a result, the four mile construction project—the largest of its kind in Tennessee — has forced local businesses to lay off workers and cut back hours. Zach Wade, owner of the Clarion Inn off Highway 66, was forced to fire his entire sales team and general manager due to decreased revenues caused by the project. According to Wade, “What’s really infuriating to me is the fact that they’ve got all these pylons and construction barrels all along the road and they haven’t done much… they couldn’t have picked a worse time for our business.”
Rich Arnold, owner of Jersey Mike’s Subs, has seen a revenue loss of 55 percent and expressed his frustration with the Stimulus funding saying, “What is the stimulus money for? To stimulate, to get people to spend money. So what is the stimulus money doing?” To date, this, the largest Stimulus project in the state, has only created one on-site job. Meanwhile, Tennessee’s unemployment rate is currently 10.6 percent.
(May 11, 2010) – The Bloomington, Indiana, City Sanitation Department recently spent $40,000 of Stimulus funds on 10 solar-powered trash compactors. Coming in at $4,000 a piece, the 10 trash cans were installed throughout the downtown area of Bloomington. Shelby Walker, the city’s Director of Sanitation, says the new solar-powered trash cans resemble “green mailboxes,” and that the city will eventually install more units. Unfortunately, there is no evidence that $40,000 worth of “waste” cans created a single new job in Bloomington, or Indiana, which struggles with a 9.9 percent unemployment rate.
(May 4, 2010) – The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is spending $750,000 in Easthampton, Mass., to build a “denil fishway.” The fishway, also known as a fish ladder, is 150 feet long and will allow various fish species to reconnect to traditional breeding grounds upstream on the Mahan River.The project had been in the planning stages for 10 years but lacked funding, until now. Rep. John Olver (D-MA) praised the project saying, “With it a decade in the making, I can’t tell you how pleased I am that Recovery Act funds will allow this project to move forward this summer.” To summarize: There hasn’t been enough money to fund this project during good economic years, but now, during the worst recession in decades, with unemployment topping 9 percent and the deficit exceeding $1 trillion, apparently now is the best time to build a nearly $1 million fish ladder.
(April 27, 2010) – The Corps of Engineers is spending $13.2 million in taxpayer funds to upgrade a building in Sausalito, Calif. which houses a 145,000 square foot working model of the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento Delta. The upgrades will include installing solar panels, making structural improvements, and general upgrades to the model itself.
The former research facility was turned into a tourist-only location in 2000 when all scientific research there was suspended. Now, 150,000 visitors annually view the model on display. Meaning, the upgrades will cost $88,000 in repairs per visitor. While the model may have some tourist interest, it is unclear how spending taxpayer Stimulus funds on it will create new jobs for the state. California’s unemployment rate is currently 12.6 percent.
(April 21, 2010) – In Oklahoma, $94,000 in stimulus money is being spent to replace sidewalks in the community of Boynton that “look new”, a sidewalk that isn’t in front of any homes or businesses, and even one sidewalk that leads directly into a ditch. Ray Allen, a long-time resident of Boynton, calls it “100 percent a waste of money.” Sitting in a booth in the town’s lone convenience store, Allen said the sidewalk construction had been the talk of the town recently, and none of it positive. “When you don’t find anybody that’s for this, here in this town,” Allen mused, “it’s pretty bad.”
But, according to Mike Lance, another long-time Boynton resident, that’s the point — the town’s sidewalks don’t really need to be fixed. “It looks like, to me,” Lance charged, “ODOT has got money to spend, they’re needing to spend it quick, and this is a quick way of getting it done.” Lance said it makes no sense to him that the contractor had replaced one section of sidewalk that was in perfectly good condition. “This was brand new sidewalk, five years old,” said Lance. “I mean, it didn’t even have weather stains on it.”
Lance said the best indication of the absurdity of the project is what the contractor did with a section of sidewalk at the north end of town — one that fronts no homes or businesses, and leads directly into a ditch.”It’s goin’ to nowhere,” said Lance, pointing.
(April 13, 2010) – The IRS is spending $80,469,000 in Stimulus funds for a “Cadillac” style renovation, with “all the bells and whistles,” of their facility in Andover, Mass. This is the exact same facility that laid-off 1,400 employees just last year. Begging the question, who exactly is benefiting from this renovation and what jobs are being created or even saved?
The IRS’s regional spokeswoman didn’t seem to know. In an email to the Boston Herald, she conceded, “It is premature to speculate on what, if any, new types of jobs might come to Andover.” Meanwhile, Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-MA), the project’s key proponent in Congress, has refused to “second-guess where [the] money would’ve been better spent.”
(March 23, 2010) – Union Station, in Washington, D.C., is receiving $4.3 million dollars in taxpayer funds to turn the escalators in the parking garage into “green” escalators. Fox News Reporter Tucker Carlson reported, “With that money, you could support about 90 average American families.” Instead, this stimulus project may create 7 temporary jobs. (Of note, Washington, D.C.’s unemployment rate is 12%).
(March 16, 2010) – The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Michigan State University $200,000 in taxpayer funds to help preserve their large bug collection. The Stimulus cash will be used to ensure that living bugs stop eating the preserved dead bugs. Anthony Cognato, head bug expert at Michigan State, justified the money, explaining that the $200,000 grant gave 4 students the job of moving dead bugs from old trays to new ones. (Of note, East Lansing, Michigan has an unemployment rate of 11.7%).
(March 10, 2010) – The University of Wake Forest is spending $71,623 in taxpayer funds to study the effects of cocaine addiction on monkeys. Civitas Institute, a North Carolina conservative think tank, has ranked this project as the worst stimulus project in the state. Mark Wright, spokesman for the Wake Forest University School of Medicine, said that this study is the “continuation of a job.” Thus, the study pays for exactly one job—or at least the “continuation” of exactly one job. Winston-Salem, home of Wake Forest, has a 10 percent unemployment rate. Lee Price, a resident of Winston-Salem who has been unemployed for over a year, is not happy about the expenditure: “I’m just thinking it’s money that is supposed to be spent toward improving something — not for… monkeys.”
(March 1, 2010) – The U.S. Department of Energy’s Weatherization Assistance Program was awarded almost $5 billion in Stimulus funds to have “homes tuned-up by energy experts.” The White House boasted the program would create a “huge number of new jobs,” while targeting 590,000 homes for weatherization updates. Rhode Island, among other states, received $58 million in Stimulus money for the Weatherization Assistance Program. Yet, they and 4 other states have not distributed a single penny on the program. To date, less than 8 percent of the $4.73 billion appropriated for the entire project has actually been used.
Gregory Friedman, inspector general of the Department of Energy, noted his disappointment, saying: “The job-creation impact of what was considered to be one of the department’s most ‘shovel ready’ projects has not materialized.” Part of the problem has been both anti-competitive Davis-Bacon regulations and state hiring freezes.
(Feb. 23, 2010) – This week’s installment comes from DeKalb County in Georgia, where $382,900 in Stimulus money was spent earlier this month to send 200 of its public school employees to Hollywood, California, for 4-day conference hosted by America’s Choice, a self-described “solution provider.” Dale Davis, the school system’s spokesman, indicated that the school system spent $291,400 in federal taxpayer money on hotels, flights, meals, and incidentals. Which is not surprising considering that the primary hotel for the conference was the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel and Spa, with nightly rates beginning at $239. No jobs seemed to have been created, retained, or saved on a conference short on details. In fact, the DeKalb school system is facing “severe budget problems.”
(Feb. 17, 2010) – More than $3.5 billion in economic stimulus funds are going to programs that President Obama wants to eliminate or trim in his new budget… The administration’s budget plan says the corps and USDA programs are inefficient and duplicate similar, more effective work by other agencies. The proposed cuts indicate the programs shouldn’t have gotten money from the $862 billion stimulus package, said Tom Schatz of the non-partisan budget watchdog Citizens Against Government Waste.” It’s certainly inconsistent, and it would have been better to have this realization a year ago,” Schatz said. “But if inconsistency means they’re going to cut the programs, it’s OK. It’s the other way around that bothers us.”
(Feb. 4, 2010) $7 million in taxpayer stimulus funds are being used to build a bridge in Thedford, Neb.. The purpose of the bridge? Helping 168 residents avoid a 30 second wait at a local train crossing. But according to Mike Hodges, a local business owner, crossing the bridge won’t even help residents avoid the current 30 second wait time — it will actually take longer to cross the new roundabout bridge. Will the bridge at least create jobs? Not for Thedford. Town Chairman Judy Taylor complained that the bridge contract was awarded to a Colorado company that is using their own workers. In fact, not one full-time job will be created through the construction of this $7 million bridge. CNN closed their segment by saying this about the bridge: “No economic benefit, no full time jobs, and a lot of taxpayer dollars used to cross the road.”
(Jan. 25, 2010) The State University of New York at Buffalo received $390,000 in Stimulus funds to conduct a study on the relationship between drinking malt liquor and using marijuana. One hundred people will be paid $45 a day for three weeks by taxpayers to drink malt liquor and smoke marijuana. The Stimulus money also will pay the salaries of three full-time employees and part of the lead researcher’s salary to conduct the study over the next two years. According to a CNN poll, 56 percent of Americans now oppose the Stimulus package. The Waste Watch can only assume that “studies” like this are the reason for the ever-increasing disapproval rating.
(Jan. 19, 2010) Last February, President Obama signed into law his $757 billion Stimulus package which dumped money into road projects throughout the country. Ten months after the bill was enacted, the AP conducted an analysis on whether road projects actually decrease local unemployment rates. This analysis was later reviewed by five independent economists at five universities.
The AP came to the conclusion, which was backed up by the economists, that the Stimulus had no affect on local unemployment and barely helped the construction industry. The AP found that the there was hardly any “connection between stimulus money and the number of construction workers hired or fired since Congress passed the recovery program.” The AP also found that “local unemployment rates rose and fell regardless of how much stimulus money Washington poured out for transportation.”
(Jan. 11, 2010) Bozeman, Montana is spending $49,410 to install new rubber-tiled tennis courts at the city’s Bogert Park. The tennis courts are being funded out of the $621,000 Bozeman has received in federal stimulus dollars. Brian Schweitzer, governor of Montana, believes this is a waste of government funds. And while the residents of Bozeman will be able to play tennis on brand new courts come June, they still won’t have any new jobs to show for the project. Game, Set, Match.
(Dec. 15, 2009) Arizona State University has received a grant from the National Science Foundation totaling $500,000 in Stimulus funds to study “the genetic differences between queen and worker ants.” ASU vice president of research and economic affairs, Rick Shangraw, notes that the ant study will preserve two jobs for “this fiscal quarter.” Meaning, the stimulus is spending $250,000 per job saved per quarter year. By that math, the stimulus will need to spend $1 million to save a single job for a full year.
(Dec. 10, 2009) A public relations firm run by Mark Penn, current Secretary of state Clinton’s former presidential campaign pollster, received a total of $5.97 million in taxpayer funds from the Democrats’ stimulus. Burson-Marsteller, a public-relations and communications firm run by Penn, received the funding to advertise the analog-to-digital television switch in 2008, reportedly saving 3 jobs at the firm. Of the $5.97 million, $2.8 million was also allocated to Penn’s campaign polling company, Penn, Schoen & Berland. Thus, at the end of the day, taxpayers spent nearly $6 million to save 3 jobs for Hillary Clinton’s pollster.
(Dec. 3, 2009) The Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra is receiving $25,000 in federal stimulus funds to provide five free concerts in the Sacramento area. The concerts will run from Dec. 3-7 and will include such programs as Bohuslav Martinu’s “Kitchen Revue,” where audiences can imagine the “life of a pot, a lid, a broom and a dishrag.”
While free community concerts are certainly admirable, it’s unclear how they produce jobs during a recession. According to Marc Feldman, executive director of the Sacramento Philharmonic, this money will give 10 of his musicians (whose jobs do not appear to be in any danger), “a good long week of work.”
(Nov. 20, 2009) – In Great Basin National Park, Nevada, the National Park Service is offering up to $25,000 in stimulus funds for a contract to build a “bat compatible gate.” The proposed 8 foot-by-8 foot gate will be built in the opening of an abandoned mine in the Lincoln Canyon.
Great Basin National Park, which already has a dozen similar gates throughout the park, constructs them to allow bats access, but keep humans out. The proposed expenditure begs the question of who the stimulus is going to benefit – humans or animals? Earlier this year, stimulus money was spent to help turtles cross a road in south Florida.
(Nov. 13, 2009) – In Connecticut, $1.3 million of stimulus money was spent for archaeological surveys and routine maintenance on man made lakes. Local and state officials have expressed frustration with the use of stimulus funds for “oddball projects like these.” Charles LeConche, business manager of the Connecticut Laborers District Council, responded candidly to these federally funded projects: “That wasn’t the intent of the stimulus package. The intent was to create jobs. My Local in New London has 500 people out of work!”
Exactly how helpful has the stimulus been for jobs in Connecticut? Donald Shubert, president of the Connecticut Construction Industry Association answers: “Back in February and March, everyone’s expectation was that the stimulus money would have a big impact on jobs here,” he said. “It didn’t come true. Very little actual work is taking place.”
(Nov. 6, 2009) -Eight Tampa Bay cosmetology and massage schools are receiving $2.3 million in Stimulus funds to pay the tuitions for hairdressers, masseuses and nail technicians. The $2.3 million is coming out of the Pell Grant program which received $17 billion in federal stimulus grants.
(Oct. 30, 2009) – Louisville, Ky., is using $1.5 million in Stimulus funds to synchronize traffic lights on several of its surrounding suburban roads. The goal of which is to shorten the amount of time the city’s commuters spend sitting at each traffic light. As a result, American taxpayers will help subsidize the convenience of 60,000 suburban residents.
(Oct. 23, 2009) -The Federal Highway Administration (FHA) spent $4 Million in stimulus funds to build a bike trail to Taco Bell. Apparently, the FHA felt it was necessary to allocate $4 million in federal stimulus dollars to build a 2.66 mile bike trail in Massachusetts. The planned corridor will provide a new path connecting the Manhan Bike Trail to the Northampton and Norwottuck Trails. Once the new trail is completed, the Manhan bikers will finally have access to the Taco Bell in Northampton.
(Oct. 17, 2009) -Under the House Republican Stimulus Alternative, the National Institutes of Health received $8.2 billion in stimulus funds. Recent reports suggest that the NIH is using a substantial portion of this money for questionable studies in foreign countries. Specifically, the NIH is conducting a $65,472 study on the relationship between HIV and sex in St. Petersburg, Russia; a $700,000 study on how taxes, trade and politics affect tobacco sales in Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and other nations in Southeast Asia; and a $73,000 study on whether the Asian tradition of dragon boat racing will enhance the lives of cancer survivors.
(Oct. 10, 2009) – The Florida Department of Transportation will spend $3.4 million in Stimulus funds to build an “eco-passage” for turtles and other animals under U.S. Highway 27 in Jackson Lake, Florida. The project will consist of a series of fences to direct turtles to a 13-foot long tunnel under the highway, helping them avoid the oncoming traffic. Local columnist Mark Hohmeister, acutely wrote of his co-worker’s reaction to the project, “FSU [Florida State University] is talking about laying off 200 people and we’re protecting turtles?”
Yet, even with this influx of stimulus money, the turtle tunnel project will still not be completed. Local community activists estimate the real cost of the project at $6 million. So, rather than creating jobs, stimulus money will be spent on building half-finished turtle tunnels.
(Oct. 3, 2009) – Picher Housing Authority in Oklahoma received $135,494 in stimulus money from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) so they could rehabilitate homes and business in the Tar Creek Superfund site which is currently scheduled to be demolished. The Tar Creek Superfund is composed of “undermined” homes and businesses. Only 19 of the 54 homes within the site have active water accounts with Picher City. When asked about the funds for the site, Senator James Inhofe (OK) said, “It doesn’t make sense to send over $100,000 up there to a place that we are closing down.” Inhofe has since asked HUD to hold the funds allocated for this particular project.
(Sept. 24, 2009) – Wisconsin has decided to use their Stimulus money to repair 37 bridges that carry only about 500 cars each day, ignoring 1,256 “structurally deficient” bridges in need of immediate repair.
One rural bridge in Iowa County, which will receive $430,000, carries only about 10 cars a day. $840,000 will be spent to connect 260 cars a day to a golf course and Rusty’s Backwater Saloon. Dave Lucey, one town chairman receiving stimulus funding for a little-used bridge, commented in astonishment, “I was surprised as anyone… I can tell you that bridge is a low priority for us.” Meanwhile, 1,256 “structurally deficient” bridges of Wisconsin go untreated by the Democrats’ Stimulus money. According to the State of Wisconsin, small “low priority” projects were moved to the front of their line because the more needy bridges would take too long to repair.
(Sept. 17, 2009) – The Minneapolis City Council recently voted to use federal stimulus funds to convert a vacant 99-year-old theater into a center of dance instead of funding a solar-energy-panel manufacturing plant that would have created 7 times as many jobs. The center of dance project will cost 2 million stimulus dollars and only create 48 permanent jobs according to the City. Interestingly, in the Spring Newsletter, the theatre estimated that completing the project would actually only create 26 full and part-time permanent jobs. At only 26 jobs, each permanent jobwould cost $76,923 to create.
The solar-energy-panel manufacturing plant that was in competition for the stimulus funds received less than 300 thousand dollars, compared to the dance center’s 2 million. Yet, the plant would have created more than 360 jobs by 2011. Because of the insufficient funds the Council appropriated to the plant, their chief executive officer indicated the plant could not be opened in Minneapolis.