In Michigan - $500,000 to renovate a frieghthouse that closed in 2004. It may be used for yoga classes or maybe a coffeehouse.
Stimulus money was given to pay for a new water treatment plant. By accepting the federal money for the project they had to follow additional federal regulations. This caused the project's cost to increase by more than $2 million. The additional costs have increased the town's utilities to by 60%
In the stimulus bill it was required that they only give money to shovel ready projects. Also a requirement of the bill was the wording "Fossil energy research and development". There was only one such project in the country that fit this description. FutureGen, a project in the State of Illinois. MIT has declared this project is not the best way to go for this technology....... “continuing lack of clarity about the project objectives.” This project was funded even though President Obama made it clear that the stimulus package would not be used for "pet projects or earmarks" . This project was originally sponsored as an earmark by none other than former Senator Obama. This project will get $1 billion.
In Wisconsin the bridge repair money is being used on rural bridges instead of areas with larger populations. One such bridge has 10 car crossings a day. The state of Wisconsin has more bridges in disrepair than any other state in the country. But the larger bridges were not "shovel ready" so they will not be fixed with the stimulus money.
The infamous John Murtha Airport is getting $800,000 to pave a back up landing strip. This airport gets 20 people per day.
One of my personal favorites - $3 million eco-passage in Florida. They have the highest rate of turtle road kill in the world, so they will build an underground tunnel to cut down on the number of turtles and other animals such as otters and snakes from being killed. Florida's economy is in a free fall, and this is how they are spending our money? FSU is considering laying off 200 people.
In Oklahoma we will spending $1.15 million to put a guardrail around a lake that doesn't exist. This was a man made lake that never filled up with water.
In Union, NY they are receiving $578,000 for their homeless problem. This is money that was never requested nor is it needed. They don't have a homeless problem.
$128 Million will be used to connect Stuart and Palm City Florida. There is a bridge 1/4 mile away that already connects the two. The land to build the bridge has not been purchased and is not expected to be available until 2011. So much for shovel ready.
Data from a report released by Senator Tom Coburn, MD
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2024: The Year the Media Lost
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3 comments:
I saw this list in my Investor's Business Daily. Although this is not surprising, it should be pointed out!
LCR
The issue of wasting money is obvious and I won't bother going there.
A thought does occur to me though. I wonder if some of this money is going to come back and bite these cities in the rear later. They are building all of these different projects with the money but who pays to maintain the projects later? In the long run these "gifts" could up cost local governemnts a lot of money.
Chuck makes a good point. The main reason some GOP Governors were turning down stimulus money, was because of the cost AFTER the money is spent. Most of these projects are going to require money coming from somewhere to maintain.....I think we all know where that money will be coming from.
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