$1,980,012,224 is the cumulative amount of stimulus money granted to Wake County, starting from the beginning of the Recovery Act’s inception, February 17, 2009 to March, 31 of this year. Let’s just call it $1.98B.
That’s out of North Carolina’s lump sum amount of $7,640,645,327 or $7.64B. Which means Wake County got about 26 percent of all the state’s federal funding. Fun with numbers!
I know there are economics involved here on planes I haven’t explored yet. For example, population: Wake has 927,140 people residing in it’s perimeters. But Wake County has an unemployment rate three percentages better than the rest of the state (9 percent compared to a shudder-inducing statewide average of 12 percent). Edgecombe County, just a few counties to the east of Wake, has an 18 percent unemployment rate in its 56K+ population. Incidentally, they received about half a percentage of the total federal stimulus funds.
I’d like to say I’ve not drawn any real conclusions to the spreading of the wealth. I’m merely scraping the surface. But it opens up some questions.
Back to Wake, the headline of this post may lead you to think this money hasn’t been spent appropriately. Honestly, I don’t know if it has or not. That’s the whole point of being a reporter. I’ll be researching each element of funding in the coming weeks and posting to the Raleigh Public Record. Find out if “Putting America Back to Work”… well, worked.
I’ll be researching some of these direct allocations that went to the following seven focus areas:
A • Workforce Development Appropriation (got about $3.2M)
B • Homeless Prevention & Rapid Rehousing (got $500K+)
C • Food & Nutrition Services ($121K+)
D • Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG) (got $416K)
E • Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) (got a little over $3M)
F • Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) ($380K+)
G • Medicaid Credit Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP) (estimated to be $2.2 million)
According to a stimulus summary provided by the county, the intent of each funded area is as follows:
A • Workforce Development Appropriation
Offer summer employment for youth, help underemployed adults find full time work, and help those recently laid off with job training and employment.
B • Homeless Prevention & Rapid Rehousing
Assist families who are homeless or in rental housing, or in institutions and in imminent danger of becoming homeless and earn below 50% of the area median income ($38,450 for a family of 4). Grant could include case management services, rental subsidies, and utility payments to help families stabilize and prevent them from becoming homeless or limit the duration of their homelessness.
C • Food & Nutrition Services
Funding to assist with the administration of food stamps and nutrition services due to the increase in clients asking for assistance.
D • Byrne Justice Assistance Grant (Byrne JAG)
Funds will be used for: new targeting systems for the Firearms Education Training Center, emergency equipment and in-car cameras for vehicles, additional surveillance equipment, and summer adventure camp for at-risk middle school students and for supplies for the crime prevention.
E • Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant (EECBG)
Reduce Energy Use or Carbon Emmissions. Project will be used for three energy efficiency projects at the Hammond Road Detention Center for: 1) Automated Building Energy Management System 2) Roof Insulation 3) Reflective Roof Membrane.
F • Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)
Funds must be used to benefit low and moderate-income families and neighborhoods. The federal government is encouraging grantees to use funds for hard development costs associated with infrastructure and public facilities activities that provide basic services to residents. Funds are scheduled to be used on the Cornerstone Facility for upgrades/renovation to HVAC unit and Crosby-Garfield Fire Alarm System.
G • Medicaid Credit Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP)
Federal Government increases their match portion of Medicaid which offsets County expenses. Applied for County Medicaid expenses of Oct 08 – Jun 09.
Let the fun with stimulus numbers begin!