States in need not first in line for stimulus

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By Stephen Dinan

President Obama's stimulus bill was supposed to spend money to create jobs, but four of the top 10 recipients of per capita grant aid to date have the lowest unemployment rates in the country and nearly all are below the national average.

And some of the places receiving the most money per capita are U.S. territories whose residents don't pay federal income taxes: American Samoas $759 per resident is more than any other U.S. state or territory. The U.S. Virgin Islands is third on the list and Puerto Rico is fifth at $529, or 30 percent more than the $407 per capita received by Michigan, the state with the highest unemployment in the nation.

Meanwhile, North Dakota, with the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 4.2 percent, compared with the nations 8.5 rate, and Wyoming, with the second-lowest unemployment, each have received $498 per resident in grant aid from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to an analysis by The Washington Times.

The recovery act was signed into law two months ago and the numbers are an early snapshot of who is benefiting the most. The grant figures come from Recovery.gov, the government's official Web site set up to track recovery spending. The population figures are from 2008, and the unemployment data are from the Labor Department's April report, covering through March 2009.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., whom Mr. Obama put in charge of overseeing the recovery act, said the numbers do not include unemployment benefits or funding from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families - both programs likely to help those states with the most needy.

"This biased and flawed analysis excludes many of the funds that are targeted directly at areas of high unemployment. When one looks at the Recovery Act as a whole - and not selectively, as this analysis does - it reflects a comprehensive effort to help get our economy moving again, in all parts of the country," said Biden spokeswoman Elizabeth A. Oxhorn.

But the numbers do include early spending that was designed to help states keep public employees on the payroll, pay for education programs, help build or refurbish public housing and dozens of other categories of spending - projects designed to create or save jobs, which was a key goal of the legislation.

The grants so far allocated on the Recovery.gov Web site account for $118.6 billion in spending, out of the $787 billion price tag for the bill.

Of the $787 billion, $288 billion is expected to go toward tax relief, $144 billion to state and local fiscal relief, $111 billion to infrastructure and science spending, $81 billion to assistance to the needy, and the rest to health care, education and Mr. Obama's green energy projects.

The states with the lowest per capita grant aid so far are Colorado, at $321 per resident, and Virginia, at $324 per resident.