CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Charlotte area seemingly gets the short end of the stick when it comes to money received from the government's stimulus plan.
NewsChannel 36 sorted through thousands and thousands of records on the government's official resource for the Recovery Act. Among the findings:
--There is tremendous inequity between towns, cities and counties in our region. One example, Watauga County has received $773 in stimulus money per capita. By contrast, Chester County has received just $97, despite unemployment that now tops 22 percent.
--Of the 19 Congressional districts in the Carolinas, the seven that have received the least funding are all located near the Charlotte area. The North Carolina Ninth District, Rep. Sue Myrick's seat, has received by far the least with about $60 million in funding.
--Some locations are getting money, but not doing much to create jobs. In the Third Congressional District of South Carolina, taxpayers are paying $1.7 million for every job that has been created.
--In Mecklenburg County, $173 million has been allocated. Those funds have created 157 jobs. Again, taxpayers are on the hook for more than $1 million for every job created.
The Chester County supervisor said it would probably take 5,000 jobs to get the county back to full employment. So far, the stimulus plan has generated just 7 total new jobs for the county.
Supervisor Carlisle Roddey said, "I can't figure out why the money doesn't go to the places that need the money. We're not getting anything. And it's not because we don't try for it. We apply for it, but we're not getting anything."
Indeed, the county showed us paperwork from applications submitted for funding. They even showed us letters in response from the federal government denying funds.
In Charlotte, former mayor Pat McCrory has been against the stimulus from the beginning. McCrory told us, "We are spending borrowed money on short-term projects with no long-term sustainability. Roosevelt built dams during the depression. Eisenhower built highways in the 1950s. We're filling potholes with very expensive money, and we've accomplished nothing."
You can look through the stimulus funding at www.recovery.gov.
