Majority of $767,218,458 in Federal Stimulus Funds to Washtenaw County Soaked Up By….
by Robert C. Smith
The amount of stimulus funding send from Washington, D.C. to Washtenaw County between 2009 and 2011 is a staggering $767,218,458 million dollars, the 4th largest amount given out within the state. That’s $2,222 dollars for every resident of the county. It’s also significantly higher, per capita, than the national average of $1,645 per U.S. resident and $1,725 for every resident of the state of Michigan. The state of Michigan got a total of $17 billion dollars in stimulus funding over the same period. Ingham County walked away with $7.6 billion dollars in recovery funding and Wayne County received $2.4 billion dollars in federal money.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services led the list of U.S. agencies that were top givers to the county. Over the three years during which the Obama administration has been trying to pull the country back from the brink of an economic Depression, the Department of Health and Human Services poured a total of $215,386,684 million dollars into recovery projects. Click on the amount, though, and you will see that the recipient of all but about $9.9 million of that money went to a single recipient: The Regents of the University of Michigan.
The multi-billion dollar non-profit University of Michigan took in federal recovery money hand over fist, with chunks of funding as large as $14.8 million dollars for construction projects, and $7.8 million to fund a study on health and retirement. The “vendors” associated with the study on health and retirement were not primarily Michigan-based firms, but rather universities in California and Maryland, as well as companies located throughout California, such as DNA Genotek and Seracare Bioservices.
In Wayne County, conversely, the majority of that county’s money went to its various public school districts and charter schools; some $729,675,130 dollars in total. The Detroit Public Schools, and the Detroit School Board came away with the largest single chunk of recovery money spent by the U.S. Department of Education in Wayne County.
In Washtenaw County, the U.S. Department of Education funneled $97,878,563 in stimulus money to schools. However, at the top of list (again) were the Regents of the University of Michigan, with an $8.7 million dollar grant, part of a $1.3 billion dollar stabilization project. The Ann Arbor Board of Education received $12.6 million in stimulus funds, and the Washtenaw Intermediate School District received $11.06 million. Unlike in Wayne County, where local school districts were awarded the lions share of the money, in Washtenaw County universities, again, came away with the largest pieces of the education recovery funding pie.
Local Ann Arbor business came away with recovery funding in the form of Small Business Administration financing. These include: Arbor Brewing Company, Beal Incorporated, Running Fit, and the Center for Empowerment and Economic Development, among others.
To explore the ProPublica database of federal recovery money distributed in Michigan, click here.
Short URL: http://www.a2politico.com/?p=13191
I find it somewhat obscene that municipalities and institutions
in Michigan that can be argued are among the most affluent in the
state were the biggest winners in the stimulus money game, and the
money eventually reaching many vendors WHO WERE NOT located in the
area.
It would seem to me, and perhaps this is an oversimplication, that
the communities IN THE MOST NEED would be the ones receiving the
greater share. Which is not to say the world wasn’t made a better
place as to what was parceled out, but naturally the more affluent
communities and institutions seem to have the better grant writers
in their ranks.
In one regard, I can’t really blame the victors (valiant?) for taking
advantage of the opportunity. They would be remiss in their duties
if they didn’t take advantage as to what was out there.
However, this is a concentration of wealth and resources
perpetuating and enhancing concentration of wealth and resources
absent the basis of need, and as a possible consequence, creating
and/or enhancing economic (and in some cases) environmental
injustice, something government aid (ideally) is supposed to
prevent or mitigate in the absence of the private sector’s strength and
and ability to control these problems.
Again, an oversimplication, but something is wrong when a community t
gets receives $2200 per citizen versus $1600 elsewhere.
And for all that “establishment” folk like to beam about how
progressive Ann Arbor/Washtenaw County is, I don’t see the political
or cultural will to say, “we don’t need this as much as Muskegon,
Flint, or Detroit does”. And in that, in one regard, we as
a community compromise ourselves.
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