US citizens can now search by state, zip code, and congressional district to view where government contracts are being awarded.
(screenshot from Recovery.gov)Photos (1 of 1)
Here’s where stimulus money is putting people to work
A first report card shows the federal Recovery Act money means hiring more electricians, carpenters, and others across the country. But it’s not necessarily in states with the highest unemployment rates.
By Mark Trumbull | Staff writer/ October 15, 2009 edition
Your economic stimulus money is helping to keep the lights on at an electrical contractor’ shop in Hawaii, the state where Barack Obama went to high school.
The price-tag: $366,578 for A-1 A-lectrician Inc. to do repairs and seismic upgrades at a federal building in Hilo.
That kind of detail is now available to the public, thanks to a White House pledge of transparency. The numbers, released Thursday on the www.recovery.gov website, allow US citizens to drill down by state, zip code, and congressional district to view where government contracts are being awarded.
It’s a tantalizing glimpse into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the largest US stimulus effort ever. But it’s just a glimpse.
So far, details on just $16 billion in ARRA contracts and grants are on view. Eventually that’s slated to go much higher. (The total stimulus, reaching $787 billion, also includes money going toward tax cuts and aid to states.)
The spending faces close scrutiny to see if it’s boosting the economy – and if there are signs of political cronyism.
A quick overview of the first $16 billion:
• So far, the state that tops the list in contract dollars per capita is Alaska. Who would have thought the home state of Republican politician Sarah Palin would top the list of federal largess, at about $378 per resident? (OK, some of you have heard of the bridge to nowhere, but anyway….) The money covers a new hospital in Nome and dredging the port of Anchorage. Second place goes to Washington State, thanks to big money for cleanup at the Hanford nuclear weapons site.
• The District of Columbia isn’t a state, but little surprise that the nation’s capital sees the biggest concentration of contracts – about $948 per resident.
• The states most desperate for jobs so far aren’t getting them from new government spending. High-unemployment states such as Michigan, Nevada, and Florida rank low on the spending tally, while North Dakota, with the nation’s lowest jobless rate, is in the top 10 for ARRA spending.
• Pennsylvania residents have seen a higher-than-average dollar value of contracts, but plenty of other important electoral states (Florida, Ohio, New Hampshire, Iowa) rank below average so far.
• All 50 states have at least some stimulus coming in, the lowest being Rhode Island at about $6 million.
• Wyoming, the home state of former vice president Dick Cheney, is one of the only Rocky Mountain states that hasn’t scored above average in this first round of ARRA spending. No cause-effect relationship implied. Delaware, home to Vice President Joe Biden, equal’s Wyoming’s take at about $36 per resident. Mr. Biden has pledged to follow up on any signs of fraud or abuse within the stimulus program.
“It is too soon to draw any global conclusions from this partial and preliminary data,” Obama economic advisor Jared Bernstein said in a statement Thursday.
The effectiveness of the stimulus is a matter of heated political debate, because of its cost to taxpayers and because unemployment has risen faster than expected nationwide since the measure was passed in February.
White House analysts estimate the direct impact on jobs from the $16 billion in contracts to be quite small – employing about 30,000 people. But they say the overall stimulus effort, including ripple effects, is significant.
“All signs – from private estimates to this fragmentary data – point to the conclusion that the Recovery Act did indeed create or save about 1 million jobs in its first seven months, a much needed lift in a very difficult period for our economy,” Mr. Bernstein said.
The economy has lost 7 million jobs since the recession began.
Bernstein said the public database on stimulus spending will be expanded significantly on Oct. 30.
—–
Follow us on Twitter.
( More stories )
Comments
2. John Bittenbender | 10.15.09
Rhetorical fear-mongering. A more detailed article with some actual long term thinking would be appreciated. This honestly reads as “I disagree with the distribution of theses funds” Well it’s the initial distribution approximating 2% of 787 Billion (if I did my math right 16/787 based in your numbers). Wow, that 2% of distribution is TOTALLY indicative of how the the other 98% is going to be spent.
I’m done now.
P.S. No agenda here, I’m Libertarian bent and think the whole thing is a sham.
3. Yankee1775 | 10.16.09
I think the emphasis on zip code and Congressional District on Recovery.gov is indicative of the parochial perspective of most individuals and Congress. Representatives and Senators are re-elected based on the local idea of “what have you done for me lately”, meaning, “how much money have you brought to us”. This encourages the diffusion of stimulus dollars to many small projects rather than to two or three large scale, expensive projects that might benefit the nation as a whole. It’s the same propensity toward earmarking under a different name, and why we no longer see grand infrastructure programs like the Interstate Highway System or Hoover Dam that serve multiple districts, states, or regions. Sadly, it’s why Congress and DC continually miss the forest for the trees…
4. Gerald Spencer | 10.16.09
Economics, Foreign Trade Deficit, Government Spending Deficit Borrowing, Jobs for Americans, and the Buying Power or Value of the US Dollar are all interrelated and very important. These subjects need to be understood by the General Public. Economics is not that complicated. It is interlocked with understandable cause and affect principals of various economic action options.
Real wealth and real monetary value is created only when the members of a family (or a tribe, nation, city-state, etc.) plant, grow and/or harvest something of commercial value from the earth, extract something of commercial value from the earth, provide professional services (medical, legal, dental, engineering, architecture, accounting, land surveying, technology, etc.), and/or manufactures or constructs something of commercial value that is consumable (or permanently useful for income or rent) and then sells, leases or rents these items and/or services to parties outside of their family in return for a net transfer of gold, currency or commodities from other parties outside of their family into their own family. The members of that family can reflect their real wealth with the accumulation of grain, gold, cattle, jewels, land, buildings, commodities and/or other marketable products for reserve use in times of emergency and/or also to raise the standard of living for the members of that family.
Did the Biblical Abraham squander his assets unwisely and then became hungry and homeless when a famine occurred? Is the USA is repeating this action?
When the Biblical Abraham’s family faced starvation, Abraham took his family to Egypt where there was grain stored and hoarded by the Egyptians to insure the survival of Egyptians during times of drought and famine.
Abraham and his descendants probably submitted themselves to be slaves of the Egyptians in return for food and shelter if they were starving.
5. publiclobbyist | 10.16.09
Cronyism alert:
Obama endorsed New Jersey’s Corzine (D) for governor. He stupidly thought that Corzine was instrumental in getting him votes but NJ always votes Democratic anyway.
So, where is Corzine from originally? North Dakota, the biggest winner so far.
I would bet that he still has roots there in the old home state. I hope I’m wrong and that North Dakota will not get that much more dough–cause others need it more.
6. R Lovell | 10.16.09
Here in Fresno, California, stimulus money is finishing our Freeway 180, which had stopped when our state ran out of money. We also have many projects in the works on our surface streets. Orange cones are everywhere. People are working, money is coming in. The naysayers and whiners who want an instant end to our economic woes just aren’t going to get what they want. But the Stimulus is working. In this valley, where normal unemployment levels are 10 to 15 percent, every bit helps.
7. Angelo Jimenez | 10.16.09
This is going to turn into the biggest boondoggle this country has ever seen. Case in point from just a cursory inspection of NJ’s spreadsheet:
120,000 was awarded in N.J. to repair a roof at Picatinny arsenal. Who benefited? The award was given to an outfit out of Oklahoma who is %100 Native American. It hired 1 manager and 2 roofers but where was the staff from? Even if the workers were from New Jersey, the profit went to an Oklahoma company and the military benefited from the work.
I don’t want to inspect the data anymore. I know I’ll get sick. I can only hope that economists are much smarter people than me.
8. william j clemons | 10.16.09
Those “good paying jobs” are yet to be talked about —the FACTORY JOBS LOST DUE TO THE HERLTER SKELTER METHOD THE UNIONS HAVE IMPOUNDED ON THE FACTORY MANAGEMENT that has cut production rates and increased the labor rates so high that the factory cannot produce a product with a sales price that will compete in the global market place.
It is puzzling why all the JOURNALISTS have not applied their skills to REALLY FIND THE CLUPRIT BEHIND THE “BEGINNING OF THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL OF THOSE” GOOD PAYING JOBS.
And the only way the “good paying jobs” are going to be brought back is if the Administration will invite the Union Leaders to the table to help bring down the labor costs and increase production rates.
In our area the economy has been halted to the tune of $24,000,000 PER WEEK in lost revenue - from 30,000 jobs being shipped out or laid off at a factory over the past 5 years. That also effects the State Sales Tax to the tune of approximately $1,000,000 per week —and FICA/MC [for social security and medicare reserves] is dampered approximately $3,600,000 per week—-AND THIS IS EVERY WEEK UNTIL THOSE GOOD PAYING JOBS COME BACK.
ALSO ,stop pounding on the Insurance Companies for high premium causation. Look see at the Obscene Charges that the Medical Providers are charging patients —the insurance companies takes WHATEVER THE PROVIDERS DECIDE TO CHARGE —and built the premiums around that with added profits - overhead and risk management reserve.
Why doesn’t the JOURNALISTICS take a real look at the medical providers desire to make over $1,000 per hour —-twice what they could make and live very comfortably.
9. T. Adams | 10.16.09
If the statistics will look at the voting trend in the states receiving the most work from that stimulus bill, I think the answer will be more evident. If not the voting, lets find out about the political donations and the special interest groups. I get a bit concerned when the bailout money for banks, credit unions and other financial institutions is used for acquistions and outsourcing, especially in the customer service arena. How distressing it is to have the economic downturn hit you with outrageous interest hikes, and your only source of communication is with someone with bad or heavily accented English reading from a cue card in some 3rd world country. Fine, they need help, but lets help at home first and work on our unemployment first. What greed…makes me sick.
10. Smiley Rumpole | 10.17.09
Just give us our own money to spend or save as we choose. We are being taxed into oblivion.
11. Rob | 10.19.09
The perfect re-distribution of wealth. We pay but we don’t get anything. No stimulus for you light gray.
Trackbacks/Pingbacks
Leave a Comment
We do not publish all comments, and we do not publish comments immediately. The comments feature is a forum to discuss the ideas in our stories. Constructive debate - even pointed disagreement - is welcome, but personal attacks on other commenters are not, and will not be published.
Tip: Do not write a novel. Keep it short. We will not publish lengthy comments. Come up with your own statements. This is not a place to cut and paste an email you received. If we recognize it as such, we won't post it.
Please do not post any comments that are commercial in nature or that violate copyrights.
Finally, we will not publish any comments that we regard as obscene, defamatory, or intended to incite violence.
1. david | 10.15.09
Mr. Bernstein’s ‘conclusion’ that the 30,000 jobs created by the 16B in contracts is an indicator of 1M new jobs seems ridicules. US department of labor says we have been losing 307k jobs per month on average since the stimulus bill was signed- 2.3M jobs. So is Bernstein suggesting without the Stimulus bill, that number would have been 3.3M in lost jobs?