Federal stimulus spending on programs in Montgomery County (PA), through July 20, is worth $108 for every county resident, according to a ProPublica report.
An electronic sign on eastbound U.S. Route 422 warns of lane closures due to reconstruction.
WASHINGTON DC – The amount of federal economic stimulus money being spent in Montgomery County (PA) – a total of more than $84 million through July 20 (2009) – equals $108 for every man, woman and child who are county residents, an examination by the ProPublica news organization shows.
The Pottsgrove and Pottstown school districts have benefited directly from that spending, according to ProPublica. So have students of Ursinus College in Collegeville, 8 miles east of Sanatoga. And motorists who travel U.S. Route 422 between Royersford and Collegeville benefit from the third largest allocation of stimulus funding, more than $12 million, being spent within the county borders.
ProPublica’s analysis – a far-reaching look at spending so far under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 in every county and every state in the nation – concludes there is “no relationship between where the money is going and unemployment and poverty,” despite repeated pledges by the Obama administration “that the money would reach middle America, seeping into the communities hardest hit by the recession.”
The independent news group‘s package of stories and county-by-county stimulus funding reports, titled “Stimulus Funding Fails to Follow Unemployment, Poverty,” were published online Wednesday (Aug. 5, 2009). The Sanatoga Post is a member of the ProPublica Reporting Network.
- Read the entire ProPublica analysis.
- See ProPublica’s recipient-by-recipient list of stimulus funding spent in Montgomery County.
- Compare it to similar lists of spending in adjacent Chester and Berks counties.
- Get a sense of overall stimulus spending in Pennsylvania.
If highest spending is meant to have greatest impact, then the biggest local federal stimulus winners undoubtedly are commuters on Route 422, the four-lane highway that is the daily vehicular lifeline to and from work for thousands of area residents. The Recovery Act is pumping $13,439,569 into reconstructing the four-mile stretch of 422 from Royersford to Collegeville.
It should be noted that the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation has described that project as being valued at $12.2 million. Reasons for the discrepancy in figures were not immediately apparent in ProPublica’s reporting.
Within Montgomery County, even bigger winners were Plymouth Township and West Conshohocken Borough, where $33.6 million is being spent on repairs to Interstate 476 (The Blue Route); and Upper Merion Township, which gets a new off-ramp for State Route 76 valued at $14.2 million, according to ProPublica.
Pottsgrove School District offices.
Also directly benefiting locally from stimulus funds were the Pottsgrove and Pottstown school districts. ProPublica reported Pottsgrove was scheduled to receive $230,291 in Recovery Act funds under “Title I grants to local educational agencies;” Pottstown was slated for $430,010. Worth noting: the nearby Spring-Ford school district, so far, has received no stimulus funding, ProPublica said.
Ursinus College’s stimulus windfall came in the form of additional Pell Grant money to pay for student scholarships. ProPublica said Ursinus got a total of $393,109 so far in three such allocations.
Six similar Pell Grant allocations, totaling almost $2.4 million, are identified by ProPublica as being given to “Montgomery County.” Although not specified by name, it is assumed the recipient in fact is Montgomery County Community College, with campuses in Pottstown and Blue Bell. If so, students attending there also would benefit from added scholarship money.
While Montgomery County transportation and education have received the most stimulus money to date, funds also have been spent countywide on programs in housing, agriculture, small business, defense, and the arts.
Graphics by ProPublica.org
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Let’s see how they inflate the original estimate to match the Federal Funding.
It would seem that the repairs are way out of line with the original roadways costs….
Perhaps they should throw in a trollbooth or two