Friday, February 06, 2009

Daley Refuses to Say How He Will Spend Expected Stimulus Money

Wow. 

Mayor Richard Daley said today Chicago has compiled a wish list of “shovel-ready projects” to spend federal economic stimulus funds on should Congress approve a plan.

Unlike hundreds of other cities, however, Daley said Chicago won’t make its list public.

“Yes, we do, we have our list, we’ve been talking to people. We did not put that out publicly because once you start putting it out publicly, you know, the newspapers, the media is going to be ripping it apart,” Daley said.

“It’s very controversial. Yes, we have ready projects from the Board of Education to the City Colleges to the Park District to the CTA and the city of Chicago. Oh yes. Us and New York decided not to do that. We thought we could go directly into the federal bureaucracies and the different departments,” the mayor added.

Later, Daley was asked why he wasn’t being more transparent.

“Read some of your newspapers. Heh heh,” he replied.

In other words, he wants to be able to spend the money without any scrutiny from the public.  If history is any guide, a good chunk of the money will be spent paying back political supporters. 

 

(1) Comments
Posted by Owen at 0639 hrs
Politics + Politics - General

  1. “If history is any guide, a good chunk of the money will be spent paying back political supporters.”

    How can you be opposed to him paying back campaign contributors with tax dollars in this situation, but not in all campaign contribution scenarios?  Just because it’s secret this time?  I’d almost prefer to be kept in the dark when I’m being fleeced.  Beats the arrogance of doing it to my face, right out in the open.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 06, 2009 at 1135 hrs


Commenting is not available in this channel entry.