According to NCRecovery.gov, North Carolina will receive approximately $8.9 billion from President Obama’s stimulus plan passed in February 2009. It ought to be easy for Governor Perdue to create jobs in North Carolina will all of that money. But the unemployment rate for North Carolina was 11.2% last month according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the 7th highest in the nation.
North Carolina had a population of 9.2 million according to US Census Bureau estimates in 2008. If Governor Perdue were to give each North Carolinian an equal amount of the projected funding from the stimulus package, each of us would receive $967; an impressive amount of money. Who among us would not be stimulated by an extra $967 in their bank account?
Consider also that the entire state budget for the 1993-1994 fiscal year in North Carolina was $8.9 billion and you can see how massive the amount of money coming into the Tar Heel state is. Where has this money gone? One example, our state received $132 million for home weatherization. See what else North Carolina’s job creation money is being spent on here.
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