$103 Million in “Shovel-Ready” Infrastructure Projects Looming Over Franklin?

When President Obama signed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (so-called stimulus bill) into law last February, $80 billion of this bill’s funding was allocated to the states for critical, urgent "shovel-ready” local projects for such things as transit, infrastructure, housing, airports, and schools. We’re now seeing that billions of taxpayer dollars are being thrown at projects never intended to receive stimulus funding in the first place, like beautification projects, museums, parks, and street lamps.

In a May article, ReasonOnline wrote that in December 2008, the U.S. Conference of Mayors submitted a wish list of ‘shovel-ready” projects for 779 cities totaling $149.7 billion for 18,750 projects.

In February in a post entitled U.S. Conference of Mayors Drafted $73.2 Billion Wish List, we noted that Mayor Tom Taylor had submitted a detailed list of the City’s “shovel-ready” projects to Madison, requesting a total of $103 million in federal stimulus funding. The request was ultimately rejected. Franklin blogger Greg Kowalski addressed Taylor’s wish list, as well.

Now, with all of this in mind, BATTLE JOINED is curious.  If the City is truly facing $103 million in critical, urgent "shovel-ready” infrastructure projects, as detailed in Mayor Taylor’s request, how does Taylor intend to pay for these supposed critical projects? And if the Mayor’s project’s were not, in fact "shovel-ready,” how can he justify requesting $103 million in federal tax dollars?

Common sense thinking tells me there is something is very wrong here.