The Associated Press reviewed more than 5,500 planned transportation projects in the U.S. and discovered that states are planning to spend 50% more per person in areas with the lowest unemployment than in communities with the highest.
The office of Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) took it a step further yesterday, stating that President Obama oversold the transportation aspect of the stimulus bill. “It was sold as the heart and soul of the package, and it really just isn’t,” said Oberstar spokesman Jim Berard.
The AP report also revealed that many struggling communities simply did not have the money to cover the upfront costs of shovel-ready projects, the main requirement to be eligible for the federal assistance. So even though unemployment and the need for road and bridge repair are high in those areas, it could have taken years before people would be put to work.
U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood defended Obama’s stimulus plan, saying transportation is not the only area to look at for jobs. “When it is all said and done, you’re going to see an enormous number of people working on these projects,” he said.
White House Spokeswoman Elizabeth Oxhorn agreed, stating, “Different programs under the Recovery Act are targeted differently, and looking at them in isolation is misleading and incomplete.”
