Funny what wins praise among our ruling class these days. Seems the White House is giving North Carolina an "atta-boy" for how rapidly they are spending our money.
The White House says North Carolina is getting the job done on highways.
North Carolina has exceeded the federal deadline to obligate 50 percent of their highway funds under the economic stimulus plan by June 29, according to a White House release.
The release said North Carolina has "put to work" $314 million in highway funds – or 61 percent of their requirement.
Of course, when money is spent by politicians for political ends, politics tends to play a heavy hand in how our money is spent. Capitol Monitor in Raleigh has been doing an excellent job tracking the stimulus money coming in to NC for construction jobs. See their "tracking the stimulus" chart here.
Some observations thus far:
- Of the 26 construction jobs identified going to private contractors thus far, half of them were awarded to companies donating to Gov. Purdue
- The 7 different companies being awarded these 13 jobs donated a combined $50,000 to Purdue, and another $22,000 to state representatives from the district the jobs will be located
- Four jobs were awarded to S.T. Wooten corporation – whose president and wife donated a total of $16,000 to Purdue, and $4,000 to Marc Basnight (one of their jobs is in Basnight's district)
- Three jobs were awarded to Barnhill Contracting. Purdue received a total of $20,000 in total donations from Barnhill's President, his wife; and Barnhill's VP and his wife. The same group also gave $18,000 to Sen. Clark Jenkins (one of the jobs awarded to Barnhill is in Jenkins' discrict)
- Seven of the 26 total jobs went to the two companies that donated the most money to Pudue; which are also the only two companies listed that donated to their local representatives
Is it any suprise that the Obama administration is giving its approval to this crony corporatism?
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