Your Stimulus Dollars at Work: "Shovel-Ready" Means "Not That Important"

Nick Gillespie | September 25, 2009

From USA Today:

Nearly $10 billion in stimulus aid to repair the nation's tattered highways has largely bypassed dozens of metropolitan areas where roads are in the worst shape, a USA TODAY analysis shows.

Half of the nation's worst roads are in counties that will only get about 20% of the stimulus money allocated by state and federal officials for street repairs. Although the worst roads are in just a handful of counties, they account for 11,000 miles of pavement so rough the government has branded them as unacceptable....

The result is that counties with the worst roads won't get much more repair money than counties with better roads. The 74 counties with half of the nation's bad roads will split $1.9 billion, records show; counties with no major roads in bad shape will split about $1.5 billion.

And don't expect major urban areas with terrible roads, such as Detroit, New York, and Dallas to get much at all, according to USAT.

More here.

Comments

Tomcat1066|9.25.09 @ 8:46AM|#

Come on Nick! Clearly, you only posted this because you're a racist!

Joe M|9.25.09 @ 8:50AM|#

Save this for the next time someone brings up roads when arguing about privatization.

|9.25.09 @ 8:54AM|#

OK, the whole stimulus bill was crap, but the fact money was going to repair roads that needed to be repaired was the second least offensive part of the bill, after the tax rebates. Anyone who didn't think the repair money would be directed to specifically pay off a constituency can kiss my ass.

|9.25.09 @ 8:59AM|#

Before the stimulus bill, the CBO had done unrelated work that showed that there was something like $80 billion dollars of improvements to roads that would benefit more than they cost -- i.e., that they'd make sense even absent a stimulus.

Somehow you'd think they'd at least have gotten that $80 billion in that $800 billion pigfest.

But then, this is the government we're talking about.

|9.25.09 @ 9:05AM|#

We all know Congress is impressively retarded, but how is it that their Budget Office seems reasonable, responsible, and comparitively down to earth?

|9.25.09 @ 9:22AM|#

The stimulus is a joke. A disproportionate amount of the spending is directed toward districts with a vulnerable Dem incumbent and set to be delivered a few months before the election in 2010.

gaijin|9.25.09 @ 9:24AM|#

Might make some sense if the road money correlated to highest unemployment counties...but with Detroit not getting much of a share I'm guessing that analysis wouldn't hold water either.

Geoff|9.25.09 @ 9:28AM|#

While I am for road repair, RI has the worst pothoses, would it have been more effective to leave the roads alone and provide stimulus to the taxpayers. I mean, I have already had three tires go in the past year. In fact two were from the same unavoidable, recurring pothole in route to work. I have defintely stimulated the tire/auto repair industry.

BTW, I thought the stimulus would be a great opportunity to actually improve roads. If I'm stuck spending the money, why not invest in something better than asphalt.

jtuf|9.25.09 @ 9:29AM|#

I live in Bergen County, NJ, one of the wealthiest counties in the US. All of the Bergen County freeholders are Democrats. At their last meeting, they voted to grant $100,000 to my hometown. When I expressed concern over spending that much money on a project they couldn't justify, the chair assured me that it was federal stimulus money. Yesterday, I was driving through Harlem down Park Avenue. The weeds growing out of the stone work that supports the elevated train tracks were a over a foot tall.

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Geoff|9.25.09 @ 9:30AM|#

Yes...I too now wonder what a "pothose" is. It sounds like something I would probably like!!!

Euler|9.25.09 @ 9:30AM|#

There is a road here in town that always backs up during the evening rush hour because the road goes from two lanes to one on the way out of town. They are using stimulus money to widen the one lane road into a two lane road for like a quarter of a mile when the road will go back to one lane and everything will back up again. It's really funny.

|9.25.09 @ 9:48AM|#

Nick, my man, you are not looking at the national security angle here. Detroit and New York are two of the places terrorists are always trying to get to or come out of. All those potholes are one of our lines of defense! As for Dallas... well, that's close to Mexico, ain't it?

|9.25.09 @ 9:54AM|#

I saw a report the other day about how the Tappenzee Bridge in New York is about to fall in. Yet, they can't seem to get the money to build a new one. The sad fact is that they could have done a lot of good with that money. They could have done things like, modernize the electrical grid so an EMP attack or solar storm won't cause armageddon or rebuild some really aging and key bridges. But, they won't do any of that. More fun to steal the money I guess.

Phantom Limb|9.25.09 @ 9:55AM|#

Come on Nick! Clearly, you only posted this because you're a racist!

Remember: When you don't have anything to contribute to the conversation, but you still want to advertise your website, just evoke the "you're a racist" meme for great justice and maximum profit.

Tomcat1066|9.25.09 @ 10:00AM|#

Or, you know, it could have just been a joke. Guess that one just didn't seem obvious, now did it?

|9.25.09 @ 10:05AM|#

John, the problem is that Congresspeople see federal spending less as something to keep our infrastructure from crumbling apart than as something to return home and crow about. So necessary but invisible repairs (such as aging electrical grids and sewer systems) get neglected in favor of rec centers and swimming pools, and roads to be repaired are selected on the basis of their proximity to swing voters.

Now, I don't believe the federal govt should be spending money to fix local sewer systems, but the reality is that the local govts that should be doing it are starved of revenue due to the federal tax burden.

Joe M|9.25.09 @ 10:07AM|#

What a sad situation, that someone could think that was a real comment.

|9.25.09 @ 10:11AM|#

Hah, aint that the truth. Well done dude, well done!

RT
www.privacy-web.pro.tc

|9.25.09 @ 10:38AM|#

I'm shocked! Shocked I tell ya! I can't believe that the federal government wouldn't apportion money in a reasonable fashion.

I'm always a bit dumbfounded when I hear people use roads and the like as justification for federal taxation and spending. If they didn't take so much of our money, maybe states would have an easier time maintaining their own roads. I frequently point out the added inefficiency in sending most of our money to the feds just so the states can beg and plead to get it back. Also, the inherent upside down injustice of putting the states in a subservient position. Looking at our history, and the constitution, that isn't the way it was intended. Additionally, it takes away from the opportunity for positive competition, and the comparative experimentation between states, giving us the opportunity to choose which system to live under. It seems for most liberals, if it's something that the government should, by any stretch, be done by the government, it should be done by the federal government, regardless of any rational otherwise.

|9.25.09 @ 10:39AM|#

The right people seem to have other priorities than working in the Obama administration.

Don't be discouraged about this, Joe Biden is on the case.

New World Dan|9.25.09 @ 10:45AM|#

Nothing new here. The areas that are best at getting grants funded remain the best at getting grants funded. We should expect anything different? Oh, right, Obama was going to put "the right people" in charge so this wouldn't be a problem anymore. Let me know when they get there.

Mango Punch|9.25.09 @ 10:51AM|#

My home town (before I moved to nyc), which is about 15 miles outside of Boston got stimulous $$ to re-do a highway and intersection... I'm getting mine (although they weren't in that bad of shape to begin with).

|9.25.09 @ 11:05AM|#

Oh, right, Obama was going to put "the right people" in charge so this wouldn't be a problem anymore. Let me know when they get there.

Should be any day now. Just as soon as they get their taxes straightened out.

|9.25.09 @ 11:31AM|#

Oh, right, Obama was going to put "the right people" in charge so this wouldn't be a problem anymore. Let me know when they get there.

They're busy running GM and taking over the health care industry righ tnow! You can't expect these Yeomans of Industry to fritter away their valuable time on such low-brow projects? That's what interns are for.

Xeones|9.25.09 @ 11:40AM|#

I'm surprised nobody has pointed out the obvious: Phantom Limb is a racist.

|9.25.09 @ 11:45AM|#

I frequently point out the added inefficiency in sending most of our money to the feds just so the states can beg and plead to get it back.

Actually, most state pols prefer it this way. The get to pretend that the money is coming from somewhere else (our rich uncle) and they also get to dip into the federal government's unlimited line of credit.

If there were no federal aid state governments would have to do some combination of the following:

1) Raise taxes.
2) Institute responsible bonding procedures (which would involve No 1)
3) Tell the people that there are limits to what the state can do and actually reject some projects on programs and concentrate on those that meet some criteria that get them to the top of the list in the setting of priorities.

|9.25.09 @ 12:06PM|#

Pretty much everything that comes out of Washington is shovel-ready.

GILMORE|9.25.09 @ 12:56PM|#

Malto Dextrin | September 25, 2009, 12:06pm | #
Pretty much everything that comes out of Washington is shovel-ready.

I like that. Is that a first or did you read that somewhere?

Anyway, there's no way washington is going to repave roads that are *bad* anymore than they'd spend money on teachers that are good or bridges that lead to important places. Money needs to get to districts to wash the constituents. Potholes be damned.

lunchstealer|9.25.09 @ 1:13PM|#

Huh. Clearly the 4 GOP representatives from Dallas county are not gonna get any funding, and I guess Eddie Bernice Johnson, the only Dallas County Democrat, has pissed somebody off.

Brett|9.25.09 @ 1:42PM|#

A disproportionate amount of the spending is directed toward districts with a vulnerable Dem incumbent and set to be delivered a few months before the election in 2010.

Tulpa, do you have a reference for more info on this? I'm not being an asshat (nor would I be surprised if this was true), but I'd think this would be much bigger news if it were demonstrably true.

|9.25.09 @ 1:51PM|#

Tulpa, do you have a reference for more info on this? I'm not being an asshat (nor would I be surprised if this was true), but I'd think this would be much bigger news if it were demonstrably true.

Sadly, it wouldn't be news. It's actually fairly typical behavior. Both parties do it. Vulnerable freshmen get put on important committees and showered with pork.

One thing about Federal transportation funding is that there are so many different metrics (and funding streams) that pretty much everyone argues that they're getting screwed.

Places with lots of road-miles say that the money should be based on that, since they have more to maintain. Places that don't have a lot of road-miles say that they deserve money so that they have can have any many roads as the next guy.

Places with lots of people argue for population. Places without a lot of people but a high percentage of travel being out-of-state say that should be taken into consideration, since it's unfair to tax their own people for out-of-state national benefits. Places that pay a lot of gas taxes want that to be the metric. Places that pay a lot of other taxes say that they deserve to be subsidized to make up for the rest of the budget. And then there's the fights about whether to include transit and train money in the mix.

Brett|9.25.09 @ 2:52PM|#

John T., fair enough (and thanks).

I still think that if you could show a disproportionate amount of the stimulus money is a) being spent in districts with a vulnerable Dem incumbent (couldn't be more than 50 districts, right?) and b) is conveniently scheduled to be released mid-2010 (despite the fact that the friggin' thing had to be passed ASAP so that the money could start flowing), then it's still a story, as the stimulus money is basically being used as campaign donations.

I guess I'm just tired of my ass being sore.

|9.25.09 @ 3:04PM|#

ultra "shovel" ready

|9.25.09 @ 7:36PM|#

Brett,

Off the top of my head I don't have a link for (a), but it is common practice. The point in (b) is widely known and reported in many outlets; the lion's share of the stimulus money is set to be spent in 2010.