A story coming out of Glendale, CA, reports that stimulus funds were used to help two non-profit organizations instead of a road in the city which has not been repaired since 1992. City officials believed that repairing the roads are a better fit for the purpose of the stimulus (shovel-ready public works projects); unfortunately, the Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee had already decided where the money was going to go before the city got to tell them that.

There are a few things wrong here. First of all, this is a gross misuse of public funds (even for stimulus funds).  Secondly, the road in Glendale actually needed to be repaired and city officials said it would cost more to repair later:

Officials also said that if South Glendale Avenue, which has not seen a major improvement since 1992, is not repaved within the next three to four years, it would need a complete reconstruction, costing the city more money.

However, since the New Horizons project has been shelved for the past three and a half years, they thought they were entitled to federal tax dollars. Executive Director of New Horizons, Maria Rochart, also stated that it would provide a more  permanent job as opposed to a temporary job “created” by the city. Wasn’t the purpose of the stimulus to be a temporary infusion of cash to help the the flailing economy? What is New Horizons going to do when they run out of stimulus funds and cannot afford to pay the person they hired? Are they going to beg for more taxpayer dollars? I would not put it past them.