Stimulus Spending and Needy Communities

Stimulus Watch: Neediest areas not first for money, By April Castro (AP), July 20, 2009, Washington Post: “Under the Obama administration’s economic stimulus plan, needy communities were supposed to be first in line for money to rebuild highways and jump start the economy. It hasn’t worked out that way. The rules required that states give priority to counties considered “economically distressed.” Yet less than half the federal highway money announced so far is directed toward those high-unemployment, low-income areas, according to an Associated Press analysis of more than $16 billion in spending announced by the U.S. Transportation Department…”
Pa. trails N.J., others in plans for stimulus spending, By Tom Infield, July 20 , 2009, Philadelphia Inquirer: “Five months into the federal stimulus program, Pennsylvania is lagging behind its neighbor New Jersey and other states in preparing for a deluge of money to do energy-saving home improvements for low-income families. The state has received about $25 million of $253 million it expects to get over three years for the massive expansion of its Weatherization Assistance Program, which dates to the ’70s…”