How will the passage of the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act of 2009 affect the job market now and in the future? Billions in appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy and science, extended unemployment insurance, monies for state and local governments have been allocated. But will it work and where is the money going?
I found a fun place to keep track! While you can go to the fluffy government website recovery.gov and not find much of anything with detail, see what’s proposed for stimulus money in your community and the estimated number of jobs each project will create at stimuluswatch.org instead.
This watchdog group was built “to help the new administration keep its pledge to invest stimulus money smartly, and to hold public officials to account for the taxpayer money they spend.” Visitors to the site are encouraged to search for and view the proposed projects, vote on whether you think they are critical or not and post comments about each project. (Note: These projects are not actually in the stimulus bill, but are candidates for funding by federal grant programs once the bill passes.)
This is a great outlet for adding your two cents, that is, if you have two cents to spare and see what this money could be used for in your area.
