States, Cities Spar Over Spending of Stimulus

Published December 24, 2015

As the first money from the federal economic-stimulus package begins to flow, a showdown between Washington-state lawmakers and Seattle officials over road projects could augur a wave of battles around the country over how stimulus dollars are spent.

The fight started earlier this week, when Washington legislators unveiled a plan for spending the state government's $341 million share of the combined $492 million in federal highway aid that will go to state and local jurisdictions in Washington. The list -- long on smaller projects such as road repaving and replacement of traffic cameras -- didn't include funding for projects in the city of Seattle, the heart of the state's economy and population.

"This is not what the president intended," Mr. Nickels said Tuesday in a speech to a Seattle business group. "This is bad policy and bad economics. It disrespects the voters and taxpayers of this great city and is an insult to the companies that contribute so much to the state's economy."

Mr. Obama has repeatedly warned governors and mayors that they must spend money from the federal stimulus package quickly and efficiently, and not use it for questionable pet projects.

Most states already have a long list of projects eligible to receive federal stimulus money, which the Department of Transportation says it may start distributing as soon as Tuesday if governors certify that their states will use the funds properly. But the process of coming up with a final roster varies among the states; in some, a transportation commission makes the final decision, while in others, like Washington, state legislatures get more directly involved.

Tension has been rising -- especially between big-city mayors and state officials -- in locales such as New York, Florida, Missouri and Michigan over how to spend the roughly $200 billion of stimulus money that will flow through the states and over what role the legislatures will play in divvying up the funds. Across the country, local officials are disappointed that projects in their areas -- such as a new highway in Laredo, Texas -- haven't been included on the stimulus list.

"We want to make sure that the metropolitan areas are getting their fair share," Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told reporters in Washington, D.C., last week. "What we don't want is states building roads that connect the ducks to the geese, and not people to goods, the way metropolitan areas do."

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