Opportunity

In February of 2009 the Obama Administration enacted the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, commonly referred to as the Stimulus or The Recovery Act, an economic stimulus package. The stimulus was intended to create jobs and promote investment and consumer spending during the recession. The rationale for the stimulus comes out of the Keynesian economic tradition that argues that government budget deficits should be used to cover the output gap created by the drop in consumer spending during a recession.  The measures are nominally worth $787 billion. The Act includes federal tax incentives, expansion of unemployment benefits and other social welfare provisions, and domestic spending in education, health care, and infrastructure, including the energy sector. The Act also includes numerous non-economic recovery related items that were either part of longer-term plans (e.g. a study of the effectiveness of medical treatments), No Republicans in the House and only three Republican Senators voted for the bill. The bill was signed into law on February 17 by President Obama.

In the rural scope of things, the community where I live and work, Washington, NC, positioned itself to leverage stimulus funds to assist with our own "recovery". I've spent the last 12-months working towards creating a project portfolio to expand investment, create jobs, and improve the efficiency of public and private buildings. I hope to use this blog as a transparency platform for our constituents as our municipality implements ARRA and other rural development projects.