Here’s another example—albeit a small-scale one—of how the stimulus funding is supposed to work. In Kansas City, Missouri, workers in a Full Employment Council program are earning $8 an hour to learn a new trade and perform needed infrastructure work at the same time. In a neighborhood that has historically had basement-flooding problems, the workers are installing sidewalks and curb-and-gutter type diversions to direct water away from the houses. Federal stimulus funds are paying their wages, and when the program is over, most of the workers will be qualified cement finishers.
It would be interesting if the workers were instead creating rain gardens or installing permeable pavers, but that’s probably another issue.
The project leader did say, however, that the group expects more federal funding to work in the city’s Green Impact Zone. This 150-block area of Kansas City will receive about $200 million in federal funding for an array of projects ranging from development of a rapid transit system using bio-diesel buses to an energy audit for local residences to weatherizing public schools and installing solar panels.
What sorts of projects are you seeing that are benefiting from stimulus dollars—or what would you like to see done in your area?