Stimulating oversight

Some folks say President-elect Barack Obama's economic stimulus proposal of $800 billion (and growing?) is too big. Others say it's too small. And lots of folks running municipalities of assorted sizes — including some in our area — have big plans to get big federal money from that economic-recovery package.

But no community appears likely to surpass the initial ambitious stimulus hopes of little Edwardsville, Ala. (population 194), at least on a per-capita scale. Edwardsville, a few miles west of the Georgia border and a few miles north of Interstate 20, was seeking $375 million for 33 proposals — most of them related to "green" energy — on the U.S. Conference of Mayors' "Ready to Go" list of possible stimulus initiatives. If all had been approved, they would have generated about $1.93 million per resident.

Among Edwardsville's stimulus suggestions were a scenic railroad, renewable energy museum, vineyards and solar-powered recharging stations for electric golf carts. E.D. Phillips, Edwardsville's representative to the mayors' conference, told U.S. News and World Report that he has long been frustrated in his efforts to advance such "progressive" projects.

Echoing the pained lament of cash-strapped municipal officials across the land, Mr. Phillips asked: "Do you know how hard it is to fund some of these projects when your tax base is so low?"

Mr. Phillips now knows that the magazine's story about Edwardsville's huge appetite for federal loot stimulated considerable resentment. Town leaders reversed their grabby course last weekend.

Mr. Phillips issued this statement: "The public perception of us being full of greed and the tremendously ugly comments have disheartened and disappointed us to the point that we are withdrawing our projects from the U.S. Conference of Mayors survey. We are greatly saddened by the response to our efforts to benefit not only our town, but also the surrounding region of our tri-county area."

However, we are greatly relieved that the competition for, and awarding of, stimulus money will evidently draw considerable scrutiny. Not only is Edwardsville now out of the running for such funding, so is Las Vegas' $50 million "mob museum," judging from President-elect Barack Obama's dismissive reaction a week ago today when host George Stephanopoulos asked him about it on ABC's "This Week."

As former House Speaker Newt Gingrich put it later during that show's "Roundtable" segment: "I think if the mob wants a museum, they have enough money to build it themselves."