I have some first hand knowledge of stimulus money allocated but not yet spent. Lots of it.

[Stinky The Clown]

I know a fair bit about the details of two projects that are representative of what is a whole lot more just like these two.

The jobs had been moving on a more or less normal pace ...... for years. Both of them are federal government projects. One has a price tag of $500M and one has a price tag of $184M.

The $500M job has been incrementally funded for maybe the last six or eight years. By incrementally funded, I mean that Congress has approved some chump change for this study or that, for this bit of engineering or that, for this bit of land planning or not. We did two of the studies.

And then along came the stimulus bill. Suddenly, this semi-stalled project got hot. It was fully funded and, by law, has to be under contract by August. We on the planning/design side had to move at light speed to get enough drawings and specs together to at least buy a design/build contract. The project is now out for bids and it *will* happen, without a doubt.

But right now ..... no Stimubux have been spent on it except for a paltry few million in design fees.




The other job is a renovation of a big, special purpose space in a famous building. This is the $184M job. The statement of need has been in place for a while, and kept current. I am aware of the job having gone before Congress at least twelve times over the last 20+ years. It was once funded, but the funding had to be diverted when a natural disaster struck the facility.

It has now been fully funded with Stimubux. Two teams are bidding for the work. This job will be under contract in August, too.

But right now ..... no Stimubux have been spent on it.




This is pretty much a pattern. Money allocated but not yet spent. These two projects, like so many others, were as "shovel ready" as any unfunded project could be.




Before we do another stimulus bill and raise the ire of the country, let's allow the current bill to work its way into the economy.




Were we to be lucky to be part of both winning teams for these jobs, our company will be very well positioned - and likely looking to contract for some additional horsepower - with respect to our workload for the next two years. There are lots of companies like ours. On the verge of a significant bump in workload and on the verge of - literally - creating new jobs.