We think Jim Berard, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, was trying to be kind in his assessment of the Obama administration’s economic stimulus funding package on transportation infrastructure.

“To some extent, I think the administration oversold the transportation aspect of this,” Berard said. “It was sold as the heart and soul of the package, and it really just isn’t.”

The president and the House Democratic leadership would have been wise to have paid more attention to the congressman, who is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, when the scope of the massive $787 billion stimulus plan was developed and implemented. Oberstar, a Democrat from Chisholm, was a strong proponent of a stimulus package weighted more toward highway, road and infrastructure projects that would put more people to work more quickly.

And he was right on. However, the package was only about one-third for true infrastructure economic stimulus. It was about two-thirds toward other programs, mostly in social spending.

An Associated Press story has now revealed that a review of $18.9 billion in projects — about half of the money set aside for states and local governments to appropriate for roads, bridges and other infrastructure — shows that more than half of that money will be spent in counties much less needy than others. Counties with the highest unemployment are most likely to be passed over in the early spending.

It should be noted, however, that some of these areas did not have “shovel-ready” projects — something that our area and state elected and appointed officials have done a good job of stressing needed to be done in advance of the stimulus package.

But it also points out the economic stimulus package was not well thought out. It was rushed and put together with far too much consideration of campaign political promises rather than getting more people to work in needed infrastructure projects around the country.

— Mesabi Daily News, May 11