cross-posted from www.asrblog.com

Credit to the Burlington Freepress for reporting last week that federal stimulus money slated for road projects may not be distributed wisely throughout Vermont.  Because distribution is based on economic hardship in a county and not on the condition of its roads, rural Essex county in the Northeast Kingdom will receive more money than Chittenden County, the state’s largest metropolis.  According to the road surveyors, Essex does not have one road that is considered to be in bad shape, while 25% of Chittenden County’s roads are considered “unacceptable.”  The rationale for this decision is that the stimulus money must be injected into the economy as quickly as possible, which would not be possible if it were concentrated only in the areas with the worst roads, considering you can’t work on 25% of the roads in one county at the same time.  Furthermore, because the unemployment rate in Essex is higher than Chittenden and mean incomes are roughly $22,000 and $42,000 respectively, Essex is getting more money.

While I am fundamentally against the concept of federal stimulus money for reasons such as this glaring inefficiency of spending, not to mention inflation, I am forced to accept that it is being done and will provide a suggestion as such.  The primary goal is clearly to get the money in the hands of citizens by way of road construction, with a secondary goal of fixing unacceptable roads, but everyone knows that there is always wiggle room when tabulating business expenditures.  So to avoid turning “acceptable” roads in Essex into “super acceptable” roads, bring all the Essex workers into Chittenden county.  The drive is too long to commute each day, so spend Essex’s money paying their workers, and spend Chittenden’s money on trailors to house these guys, buses to get them to the job sites, caterers to BBQ for them each night, launderers to take their clothes every couple days, cleaners to keep the trailers looking nice, and of course we can’t forget to make big signs that say PAID FOR BY THE AMERICAN RECOVERY AND REINVESTMENT ACT.  Chittenden county has cleaners, sign makers, launderers and caterers, all of whom could be employed to ensure the roads are constructed well.  The money will be shot into the economy as fast as if we had only paid road workers in both counties and neglected all these other folks, with an end result of fixing the same number of unacceptable roads in Chittenden.