Speak up about stimulus spending

Several local officials have made calls or taken trips to Washington, D.C., this year to lobby for specific stimulus funding help.

And President Barack Obama has called governors and mayors in from around the country. After having his staff work with them, he warned them he'll be watching to make sure they don't waste the taxpayer dollars coming their way. So who's watching him and his staff?

We wonder because we can't help but be alarmed and disappointed by recent news that several counties are getting two, three and four times the funding from the stimulus than they typically have for weatherization programs.

Daily Herald Staff Writer Jake Griffin reported recently that DuPage County is getting $4 million extra for a program designed to assist low-income homeowners with projects that would make their residences more energy efficient. That's five times more in the next two years than they had been getting. In McHenry County, officials expect twice the amount they had received.

Now, no question, there are benefits to the boost. We need to focus on improving energy efficiency. This funding will put some people to work and help 1,000 homeowners lower some energy bills in DuPage. But, no one asked for this windfall in DuPage and the program never has had a waiting list of people clamoring for the aid.

DuPage County Board member Paul Fichtner said the stimulus program priorities seem "out of whack." He noted the county is desperate for funding for roadwork. We can easily imagine there are many more urgent needs in our region. This seems a less than auspicious start to the stimulus trickle down.

We also are sorely disappointed in Obama's quick caving in to Congress' Democratic leadership by allowing them to include earmarks, considered political pork to many beholders, in a $410 billion spending bill that the President and his aides have ridiculously dismissed as "last year's business."

The easy response is to shake our heads and vent. But as we've said before in this space, we get the government we demand. So we all should call our members of Congress and give them an earful about the earmarks and the wrongly prioritized weatherization program. We ought to suggest solutions. The stimulus programs will be huge efforts to oversee. Making sure they work for us and that the money gets where it needs to will be a tough task.

Rather than having 20 agencies divvying up slices of the stimulus pie, perhaps Obama ought to put one, smaller group of people in charge of working with members of Congress on it? Perhaps our mayors, county board members and state elected officials ought to funnel their priority lists through our congressional officials so we're more certain we're spending on the most critical needs? Perhaps there are other, better ideas for how to handle this. But if we don't keep watching, start asking questions and demand accountability, we won't get it. There's too much at stake. We must make sure this works.