This is great. My home State of Rhode Island says it did not receive promised stimulus money for energy projects. The federal government says it sent the money weeks ago:
The U.S. Department of Energy says it sent about $22 million in federal stimulus funds for energy projects to Rhode Island in July, contradicting assertions made last week by Amy Kempe, Governor Carcieri’s spokeswoman, who said she didn’t believe any federal stimulus energy money had been dispersed to Rhode Island.
Kempe said last week none of the expected $58 million for energy work had been granted to Rhode Island and the state was awaiting word from the federal agency. “We’re kind of in a holding pattern,” she said.
But that’s not so, according to Jen Stutsman, deputy press secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Public Affairs.
She said the DOE released about $22 million on two dates in July, and Rhode Island is free to start distributing the money.
Kempe responded that she was given bad information by someone she did not identify. She conceded the state Energy Office has been hurt by the loss of its two top staffers. She insists its work has been delayed, but not derailed. But she could not estimate when it would be ready to distribute money for weatherization and energy efficiency and conservation projects.
A mere $22 million paid by the Feds without Rhode Island even knowing it received the money. Maybe the Feds could donate bookkeepers, although we’d probably misplace them as well.
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High Taxes And Union Pensions Are Killing Rhode Island. Duh!
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Only in Rhode Island could they misplace stimulus money. I swear, the Keystone Cops are running this place. Is it any wonder we're in the shape we're in?
Only in Rhode Island?
When I lived in New Orleans the local cable people used to air city council meetings and I well remember one. During discussion about demolishing a public pool in order to build a newer, larger one a lady got the floor.
She took out her notebook and started intoning, like cracks of the flogger's whip:
in 1992 you voted 3 million to fix the pool
in 1995 you voted 21 million to build a new pool
in 1997 you voted 13 million to fix the pool you hadn't built yet
she was relentless. The list went on. She concluded by adding up all the numbers and asking,
"And where, now, is all this money, and how much is there?"
After some hurried whispering the treasurer was produced to answer the question.
"We don't know EXACTLY where the money is, at the present and we're not sure about the total amount. But we know it's all there."