Washington Spending Watch

Washington Spending Watch: Where is your money going?

Brought to you in conjunction with the House Republican Whip, this report documents the waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars in the $787 billion stimulus, OPPOSED by Congresswoman Mary Fallin.

This week's highlighted item:

Rhode Island City on the “Verge of Bankruptcy” Spends $550,000 in Stimulus Money for a Skateboard Park

 Apparently the city of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, has been trying to “cobble together funds to pay for the skateboard park and [tennis and basketball] court upgrades” for several years now.

On March 6, the city, which has a $5.2 million school budget deficit and about a $4.8 million municipal deficit and has eliminated about 40 city jobs so far this year, announced that they will spend $550,000 in federal stimulus money to construct a skateboard park at a local school.

When a local official was asked why a city on the verge of bankruptcy chose to spend stimulus money on this particular project, he replied that projects had to be “shovel-ready” to receive funding and that “this is the one we have that is shovel-ready.”

(Sources: http://www.pawtuckettimes.com/content/view/72798/27/
http://www.abc6.com/news/40864457.html
http://tinyurl.com/c3vzkp )