Monday, February 9, 2009

Keeping the Stimulus a platinum as it can be

I'd like to draw your attention to StimulusWatch.org, the brainchild of some of my coworkers down the hall.  The site covers all the potential projects that may receive federal funding as a result of the passage of the stimulus bill.  The purpose is to get citizens involved in rating the quality of the potential projects that may receive funding once the stimulus bill is passed:

It is expected that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be signed by the President on February 16. That legislation won't list the projects to be funded. Instead, it will appropriate money for federal grant programs, such as the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) or Surface Transportation Program, which will then use the appropriated stimulus money to make grants to cities. In the case of CDBG, for example, the Department of Housing and Urban Development will be the agency that will decide (using a formula) which of the projects requested by the mayors will be funded.

Be sure to check out the "Least Critical" tab.  Don't hestitate to vote either--it helps with feedback about the projects.  I find $500,000 for a dog park and $99,600 for the installment of doorbells to be a little outrageous myself.

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