May 24, 2009

J-S stimulus money for Racine doesn't add up

Update: That didn't take long. Racine received $817,554 in stimulus money for homelessness prevention, according to the state's Office of Recovery and Reinvestment. That's the exact amount the J-S is off by in its chart. It also shows Racine has received, so far, the fourth most stimulus money in the state. Milwaukee (about $112 million), Madison (about $35 million) and Green Bay (about $5.3 million) all received more.

Original post: The Journal-Sentinel has a nifty "stimulus tracker" on its website that breaks down where federal stimulus money is being spent in Wisconsin. The one problem is the city of Racine's total don't add up. The chart breaks down Racine like this:

Community Development Block Grants - $534,384
Byrne Justice Assistance Grants - $365,206
Transit Funding - $2,540,000
Energy Efficiency Block Grants - $795,000
Total: $5,052,144

Actually, the total is $4,234,590.

There's no obvious explanation for the $817,554 discrepency. All of the other totals in Racine County add up, and the dollars included in the breakdown are only supposed to be money awarded through existing federal formulas. In other words, there shouldn't be any unstated grants mixed into the pot.

Yeah, this is a bit nit-picky, but we're talking about a lot of money here and Racine can use all it can get.

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