City mayors should be ashamed of these projects, especially Las Vegas, which is in a world of hurt. It certainly doesn't need more neon. If these are the only projects they could come up with then perhaps the stimulus isn't needed at all:
WSJ: Las Vegas, which by some accounts already glitters, wants $2 million for neon signs.
Boynton Beach, Fla., is looking for $4.5 million for an "eco park" featuring butterfly gardens and gopher tortoises.
And Chula Vista, Calif., would like $500,000 to create a place for dogs to run off the leash.
These are among 18,750 projects listed in "Ready to Go," the U.S. Conference of Mayors' wish list for funding from the stimulus bill moving through Congress. The group asked cities and towns to suggest "shovel ready" projects for the report, which it gave to Congress and the Obama administration.
Although the bulk of proposals are roads, sewers and similar projects, some wouldn't require a shovel at all. The mayors group sees a potential 1.6 million new jobs from the projects, though a few of them wouldn't create any.
Some localities are using a kitchen-sink strategy. "Our approach has been to list everything, because we don't know what the final guidelines will be or what the final dollar amount will be," says Greg MacLean, public-works director in Lincoln, Neb.
Among entries on Lincoln's list is a $3 million environmentally friendly clubhouse for a municipal golf course. "From a public-perception standpoint, I see how it could be an issue," Mr. MacLean says. But, he says, construction would create 54 jobs.
The debate about what is appropriate stimulative spending, now raging in Washington, echoes differences over the Works Progress Administration during the Depression. It built 651,000 miles of roads and 24,300 miles of sewer lines, but was sometimes lambasted because it also paid for murals and battlefield monuments. "That's when the word 'boondoggle' first came into use" in its modern sense, says William Creech, of the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.
The mayors' $149 billion project list is just one of many circulating in Washington and state capitals. Massachusetts -- which, like other states, will have a say in distributing the money -- has 4,000 project submissions from 51 towns competing for stimulus money. The San Diego Association of Governments came up with 1,043 possible projects in its region. Read the rest.
