Now this is what I call 'Stimulus'
The Manchester Union-Leader has an editorial that details how $2 million in stim money is being used to buy 4 busses for Boston commuters:
The U.S. Department of Transportation announced on Friday that it is sending $2 million in stimulus money to the state DOT to buy four buses. The buses will be owned by the state. Boston Express will use one pair, and C&J Trailways will use the other -- all for free. C&J co-owns Boston Express with Concord Coach.
These funds are creating jobs now while investing in the future of our transit systems," Administrator Peter Rogoff of the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) said in Friday's news release. "The public's demand for transit service continues to grow, and these dollars will help meet that need."That sounds nice. But it isn't true.
Two of the buses will replace C&J buses currently in service on I-95. C&J President Jim Jalbert confirmed to us in an interview Friday that his company would make no new hires in relation to receiving those buses.
The other two buses will be used by Boston Express to add new service. The number of new jobs created? "As many as four or five," Jalbert said. They will all be bus drivers.
Two million dollars to create "four or five" bus-driver jobs? That's as much as $500,000 per job.
How stimulated are you now that you know it's only costing the taxpayer a half a million bucks per job created?
Do you think it an accident that this government largess is directed at blue state Massachusetts where Obama's good buddy Deval Patrick is in big trouble? I mean, they wouldn't play politics with our tax money, would they?
Hat Tip: Ed Lasky