[quote=svelte][quote=jstoesz]
I do not understand food stamps, lets build some stuff. Why is it so hard? The hoover dam and the golden gate were built in the depression, why can’t we get that stuff off the ground now?
[/quote]
Where, you may ask, are ARRA funds being used to build something in San Diego county?
In just a few minutes of searching, I found the following:
(there may be some overlap in these numbers, I have not deconflicted)
$72M – Transit Improvements
$58M – Trolley Improvements (may be included in above number? Not clear)
$9M – SR-76 and I-805 Improvements
$5M – Energy Conservation Improvements at various government buildings
$2M – Gillespie Field Airport Construction
$1M – Street/sidewalk improvements in Del Mar, Imperial Beach, Lemon Grove, Poway, Solana Beach
Most of the projects undertaken by the stimulus were simply maintenance projects already in the works. There was nothing new, the fungible state dollar could be moved to other holes in the state and local budgets. The high speed rail project is a perfect example of our inability to build anything. In ca could we build hs rail? Of course, but the regulatory burden that chokes private business chokes public works twice as hard. I know some one who has been working for a whole department paid for by the state that studies just the water impacts for high speed rail. They have been going strong on this for years. I now think the entire goal of the project was not to build rail, butto throw a football to the state regulatory boards who will kick it around for years while we pay them to impede all progress. We plowed over the central valley years ago!
