When legislative transportation leaders read it, they immediately noticed problems with the AP’s conclusions and were shocked it overlooked many key impacts of the stimulus.
Rep. Judy Clibborn and Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, the House and Senate Transportation Committees’ chairs, respectively, drafted a response to the AP story that you can read right now on the News Tribune’s Web site.
A key point they raise about the roughly $500 million federal investment in Washington transportation projects:
“So make no mistake: Transportation projects mean jobs. If you want a simple way to look at it, imagine all the projects funded by the stimulus spending and all the people who are working on them, and then eliminate them. That’s how many more people would be out of work, how much money wouldn’t be spent in our communities, and how much more we’d be paying out in unemployment payments for the unfortunate people who lost their jobs.”Read more here.
