Posted on 07/08/2009 10:43:05 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Audit: States Using Stimulus Just To Stay Afloat WASHINGTON (CBS) ―
Projects in some of the nation's poorest areas don't appear to be getting a fair shake in the spending of $787 billion in stimulus funds, the chairman of the House oversight committee said Wednesday.
Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., chairman of the panel, said he was particularly concerned that transportation projects in economically distressed areas were being left out — even though they are supposed to be a priority.
"There is a substantial variation among states as to what constitutes an economically distressed area," Towns said. "For this reason, it is unclear whether Recovery Act funds are going where they are needed most."
His comments came in response to a Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday at a hearing before his committee.
The GAO said about half the money set aside for road and bridge repairs is being used to repave highways rather than to build new infrastructure. And state officials aren't steering the money toward counties that need jobs the most, auditors found.
The Obama administration intended for the stimulus to jump-start the economy, build new schools and usher in an era of education reform. But government auditors said many states are setting aside grand plans to stay afloat.
(Excerpt) Read more at wcbstv.com ...
Where's Sheriff Joe?
The only thing being shoveled is ‘night soil’.
Apparently, the literal ‘buck(s)’ stopped with the States.
We just need about four more stimuli and we’ll be ok.
Government worker keeps their job with a raise and the taxpayer gets the bill. The stimulus comes when the tax payer sees how much the tax bill is going to cost.
It's like the money from the Stimulus just vanished without a trace.
When the gov of SC was still teh governor and not a loose canon with even looser pants, he suggested that he would use the money for debt service and the O adminstration said noway. How can these other states be paying debt and not creating jobs???? Sounds like fraud if they took money and did not use it properly. Time for ethics complaints.
You had to know this was going to happen!
States are using stimulus money to do regular road/highway/bridge maintenance work by contract. They replace what they would have spent along with past federal funding.
Also, work that would be “federally funded” in the past would have required the states to contribute some percentage...this keeps them honest as they don’t want to waste their one dollar to the feds 9 dollars. What the state had to contribute is reduced if not eliminated with stimulus. Increased potential for waste/fraud as the states aren’t vested in the work (ongoing/end cost), but are charged primarily with the direct oversight of ongoing work.
Another jewel. The feds will be looking at the states’ spending to try to prevent them from doing what I described above; replacing what would by a state dollar spent with a federal dollar. However, some of the states have used accounting trickery to push 2008 spending into 2009, to give the appearance they spent less in 2008. So, the feds will be looking at what the state spends in 2009 relative to 2008 -when 2008 spending was pushed into 2009.
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