Stimulus Signs or Signs of Waste

Over the past few months many official road signs have been installed near federally funded road projects. The projects are funded by Obama's stimulus package. They are bright orange and green and difficult to miss. The signs read "Putting America Back to Work" on the orange topper part (and accompanied by a representation of a person shoveling). The larger green sign announces America's Investment and Recovery Act.

These individual signs cost 300 dollars each and in totality approximately six million. When you can actually see equipment and men in the road do you really need to be told that people are working? Do you feel assured by reading the signs? Would you feel any different if you had not seen the announcement? Do you feel any satisfaction that the project is part of the stimulus plan after viewing these road signs?

Stating how the stimulus money has been spent on a road project at 300 dollars per sign is wasteful and unnecessary. This money could be better-suited put directly into the infrastructure of our highways and bridges. Six million dollars would provide many paychecks.

One Senator, R-NH Judd Gregg is pushing for sagacity and voiced his objection. He introduced a bill in June of 2009, S. 1318 1S that rallied for common sense and good fiscal judgment. The name of the proposed bill is "Axe the Stimulus Plaque Act". The bill reads, in part, "To prohibit the use of stimulus funds for signage indicating that a project is being carried out using those funds." If you were to read further you would see: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, none of the funds made available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 11-5) may be used for signage to indicate that a particular project is being carried out using funds under that Act." After Mr. Gregg introduced the bill it was read two times and then handed over to the Committee on Environment and Public Affairs.

It is now October of 2009 and these signs are still being erected. They are yet another example of how are taxpayer dollars are being squandered. The signs are a case in point of talk instead of action and results.

To date the stimulus plan has not shown itself to be a winner. Stimulus plan or not, our infrastructure would need to be fixed. Perhaps some states felt that the plan could provide faster results than other methods previously employed. If a state did receive stimulus funding for highways, they were required to have the signs "Putting America Back to Work" as part of the deal for federal dollars.

No matter how the highway funding was approached or received, stimulus road signs are not sharing the wealth. The signs are employing six million dollars that produce no real results.

Sources: WWW.opencongress.org/bill
NH Union Leader