Nevada ranks last in allocating federal stimulus money
Mark Robison writes in today’s Reno Gazette Journal that “Nevada ranks last in the nation for having allocated federal stimulus funds for transportation projects, according to a study by the investigative journalism site ProPublica.org.”
That stimulus money was supposed to get hiring and employment of people going by building infrastructure. Remember all that talk we heard on TV about “shovel ready” projects ready to go?
With Nevada’s high employment rate one would think all that stimulus money allocated to Nevada would be busy building stuff and that Nevada’s unemployment rate would be dropping.
So I took Mr. Robison’s suggestion and zipped over to see how Nevada is doing with the $201,352,460 got. Sure enough, Robison was right in his article. Nevada ranks dead last in the nation in getting that money to work. According to the ProPublica chart Nevada has only allocated the money for 13 projects.
None of that stimulus money is doing anyone any good setting in some bank account.
Anyone have any idea why Nevada is so slow?
Related posts:
1 comment
Just looked at an article in the 7/8 PVT “2005 study outlines street improvement schedule”. Seems the Nye Cty. Commission paid for a study in 2005 by Tri-Core to provide the framework by which the county would plan to begin street improvements in Pahrump. The improvements would take place from 2006 through 2015 and would be paid for by impact fees. These impact fees where allowed when the County passed Ord. 302 in Aug. 2005. Impact fees are paided by commercial developers based on the square footage of building residential, single, or detached dwellings. The majority of the fees goes toward street improvements. The County Acting Public Works Director said the county is addressing a few streets. “We are a couple years behind, obviously, but the money is there and allocated.” The last county audit at the end of 2007-08 fiscal year showed the county had $5.9M in impact fees accumulated since 2005. By law the county has five years to begin planning projects using the impact fees, which in some cases fall as soon as 2010, but the county has another five years to begin construction.
Seems procrastination is pandemic in our government.
Leave a Comment