«
»

Good News / Bad News

January 23, 2010, 4:48 pm

Good news:  The nation's mayors spill the beans on what most of us already knew about the Obama stimulus:

About 80 percent of stimulus money has gone directly to state governments, they say. Instead of being used to create new jobs, the bulk of the money has been used to save existing state government jobs -- teachers, law enforcement and others -- and for shoring up sagging state budgets.

Bad news:  Mayors are not ticked off about the propping up of governments, they are just ticked off that their own local government budgets weren't propped up as well.

If more money would flow directly to cities, the mayors' group contends, it could be used for local improvement projects that would create more jobs.

Really?  I don't see the incentives of city government leaders to be anything different than that of state government leaders.  My guess is the money at the city level will be used exactly the same way as it was at the state level.

Tags:
Category: Uncategorized
  • roger the shrubber

    reading this, i'm reminded of nothing more than the politics seen in mob movies. when the swag comes in, the big guys get their cut first. 'goodfellas' shows us henry hill and jimmy conway paying paulie his 15% tribute after the lufthansa heist. 'donnie brasco' shows us how sonny black and his crew struggled to make the $50K/month "rent" to sonny red.

    mayors know this stuff. it's been like this for decades. it's never been a problem when *they* take *their* skim from city contracts and building permits and police protection money and ward boss dues. whatta they whining about? i seen this happen before: they keep this up, someone's gonna get *whacked*.

  • KTWO

    Right.

    In nearly every case city governments. especially in the largest cities, will spend any money they get to keep city employees on the payroll.

    Every other service will be stopped first, government property sold, and creditors not paid. Only then are people laid off.

    During the current economic mess the state and local governments have been offering early retirement to cut payroll. They give the employee a bonus to retire a few years early. Since the retirement fund is separate from the operating budget it appears government spending has been cut.

    In reality the problem has been forced onto the pension fund which probably will go broke later. Recent estimate of underfundeds public pension, 2 trillion.

  • IgotBupkis

    I believe the mayors are using the Ashleigh Billiant argument:

    "I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it."
    - Ashleigh Brilliant -

  • http://CoyoteBlog Cilla Mitchell, Galveston, Texas

    And is this a surprise? Our government has turned into a legalized Mafia.

  • MJ

    Instead of being used to create new jobs, the bulk of the money has been used to save existing state government jobs — teachers, law enforcement and others — and for shoring up sagging state budgets.

    What did they think the money would be used for? I'd say the stimulus is working according to plan.