Scrivener.net

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Who is getting stimulated by the stimulus?

Out of all 50 states plus Washington DC, the lucky recipient getting the most economic stimulus spending per capita sent to it from our leaders in Washington DC is ... Washington DC!

In fact, the District of Columbia receives more than twice the average per capita stimulus provided to all the states of $525 (and median of $488).
1) Washington DC ... $1,089
2) Alaska ............. 834
3) Wyoming ............ 751
4) North Dakota ....... 718
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26) Pennsylvania ...... 488
- -
51) Nevada ............ 406

Who knew things were so tough in the nation's capital? Hey, they're not!

Yet among the 50 states plus itself, DC ranks as a top recipient of all categories of stimulus spending across-the-board: #1 in spending on transporation, #1 in HUD spending, #1 in health spending, #1 in crime fighting funds, #2 in spending on water, #2 in Pell grants, #3 in job training, and #4 in education funds.

Hey, is it enough to make one wonder if somebody who lives in DC might be "connected"?

Though it's not clear from these numbers that there's much (positive) connection between the amount of stimulus spending a state receives and the condition of its economy -- the amount of stimulating it needs.

Nevada, #51 and last the list, is pretty much the ground zero of the housing market collapse and suffered the greatest increase in its unemployment rate in 2008 over 2007 of all the states (except for little Rhode Island). While the number 2-to-4 top recipients -- Alaska, Wyoming, and North Dakota -- didn't make the list of "states with statistically significant unemployment rate changes, 2007-08" compiled by the BLS.

Here's the full listing of all 51 recipients....

Compiled from per capita data by category published in the WSJ (except for "transportation", which was computed by taking the gross transportation figure for each state divided by a "capita" derived dividing the state's gross education amount by its per capita education amount).