Floridians so far have received less federal stimulus money than any of their fellow Americans, despite an unemployment rate here that ranks among the highest in the country and a budget crisis that few states can match.

Calabro

Florida has received more total dollars than all but three other states from a stimulus pot of about $198 billion so far for infrastructure projects and social services, according to figures reported this week by The Wall Street Journal.¹ That total includes money Congress left for states to divide among themselves and other dollars that federal departments have already disbursed.

But Florida received just $505 per person, which ranks last among the 50 states, all U.S. territories combined and Washington, D.C., according to a Palm Beach Post analysis of the Journal’s data.

The numbers raise significant questions about the stimulus program, which President Obama said during a February stop in Fort Myers would help curtail the state’s rising unemployment rate.²

Florida’s unemployment rate of 10.2 percent remains higher than 37 other states, according to numbers released in May.

Meanwhile, three of the four states with the fewest percentage of people out of work — North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming — also received some of the highest per-capita shares of stimulus money.³

Brown-Waite

“It just plain does not make sense to short-change those who need assistance the most,” she said.⁴

The state’s low per-capita rate also surprised some given the political dynamics in the state.

Florida remains a battleground that will likely remain critical for Obama in a potential 2012 re-election campaign. And Gov. Charlie Crist was one of the few Republicans with a national profile who supported Obama’s plan, a stance that brought the governor bitter criticism from others in the GOP.

“You’d certainly think the endorsement the governor gave would mean more consideration for Florida,” said state Senate budget chief J.D. Alexander, R-Lake Wales.

While Alexander and Florida Senate Republicans pushed to accept all available stimulus dollars, the spending plan was a political football in the House, where Republicans successfully argued to decline $444 million from the stimulus plan for unemployment benefits.^{5 6}

Crist introduced Obama in Fort Myers, saying it was “important” to pass the stimulus “to help education, to help our infrastructure and to help health care for … the most vulnerable among us.”⁷

But Florida ranks 45th in education-related stimulus money so far and 32nd for health care spending, the data show.
In total infrastructure dollars, including transportation, energy and other construction projects, Florida ranked dead last, with $152 per capita.

A spokesman for Crist, who is running for the U.S. Senate next year, said the governor would continue to work for a fair distribution for the state.

“Overall, the stimulus funds have made an extraordinarily positive impact on our state,” Crist spokesman Sterling Ivey said.⁸

Ivey and others argued that per-capita figures might show an incomplete picture of the stimulus money.

Klein

The $787 billion stimulus package was disbursed mostly through existing federal programs and spending formulas. It also included about $288 billion worth of tax breaks.

But many of those formulas work against Florida. For example, Congress returns 87 cents for transportation projects in the state for every $1 in gas taxes Floridians send to Washington.¹⁰

Nelson

“Any stimulus package must restart economic growth and put job creation first,” the senators said in a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “We question the efficacy and fairness of using existing formulas to achieve those goals.”¹²

But political pressure mounted to quickly approve a stimulus plan and eclipsed Nelson’s plan to create new formulas, a process that typically devolves into parochial food fights.

Posey

U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, said the hasty pace prevented him from reading the bill, which he opposed.

“Florida taxpayers should be outraged they sent billions of their hard earned dollars to Washington,” Posey said, “only to see it redistributed to other parts of the country and unemployment climb.”¹³

This story was published on page 1A of the July 5 edition of The Palm Beach Post.

1. Wall Street Journal, 06/30/09: Stimulus Spending, Breakdown by State
2. Remarks of President Obama, 02/10/09, Fort Myers.
3. Palm Beach Post chart: State-by-state stimulus spending vs. unemployment rates
4. Brown-Waite press release, 07/02/09: Jobs Report Reveals Floridians Shortchanged Despite High Unemployment Rate
5. Post, 04/29/09: House tax vote denies Florida $444 million
6. Post letters, 07/01/09, State Rep. Adam Hasner, R-Boca Raton: Federal money came tied with unacceptable strings
7. Post on Politics, 02/10/09: Audio: Obama & Crist together in Fort Myers
8. Read the full statement from Crist’s office: click here.
9. Read the full statement from Klein: click here
10. Bradenton Herald, 04/21/04: Low returns on gas tax cost road $204 million
11. 01/16/09: Letter to U.S. Sens. Reid, McConnell, Inouye & Cochran
12. 01/12/09: Letter to Sens. Reid & McConnell
13. Read the full statement from Posey: click here

Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Nelson, Bill Posey, Charlie Crist, Dominic Calabro, Florida TaxWatch, Ginny Brown-Waite, Mel Martinez, Ron Klein, stimulus, unemployment

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