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Home > Blogs > Butler County News and Issues > Archives > 2009 > April > 16 > Entry
Boehner blasts Strickland for ‘transportation slush fund’
Press release from U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-West Chester Twp.:
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Ohio’s Republican congressional delegation today sent letters to Gov. Ted Strickland and U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood citing concerns about how Ohio is spending its federal stimulus dollars on studies that won’t create jobs and requesting openness and transparency for taxpayers. Fulll text of the letters is below and available here and here .
The Associated Press reported Monday that Ohio has refused to fund some “shovel-ready” infrastructure projects to set aside $57 million for transportation studies.
“While the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act does give governors flexibility on how they spend their state’s federal dollars, it appears that Ohio officials are violating the spirit of the law by diverting money intended for ‘shovel-ready’ projects into a planning slush-fund for proposals that have no funding stream,” the lawmakers wrote to Secretary LaHood.
Ohio’s congressional Republicans previously called on Gov. Strickland to establish an independent, bipartisan oversight board to ensure transparency in how federal dollars are being spent. Gov. Strickland has not responded to that request.
“This is not the first time that your administration has decided to spend federal stimulus in a manner inconsistent with the intentions of the bill and contradictory to the expectations of recipients,” lawmakers wrote to Gov. Strickland, citing a March 14 Cleveland Plain Dealer article detailing concerns from Cleveland schools officials about how education dollars are being allocated.
“In light of media reports indicating that these federal tax dollars are being allocated to programs that clearly violate the spirit of the law, we again ask that you immediately create an independent oversight board to give Ohioans a full and detailed accounting of how taxpayer dollars have already been spent and all planned allocations for the remainder of the year,” lawmakers wrote to Gov. Strickland.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Post your comment | Categories: National issues, Republican Party, Statewide issues, Transportation
Comments
By Dave Kreitzer
April 16, 2009 7:05 PM | Link to this
Strickland is just following the lead of the federal government. Transparency and “Chains We Can Believe In.”