An analysis of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act
contract and grant funding for 11 California counties indicates
that San Benito County’s $12.6 million in awards was the lowest
funding per capita
– only $218 per person – compared with a weighted average of
$386 for the other 10 areas with similar populations or geography,
according to a Free Lance analysis.
An analysis of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act contract and grant funding for 11 California counties indicates that San Benito County’s $12.6 million in awards was the lowest funding per capita – only $218 per person – compared with a weighted average of $386 for the other 10 areas with similar populations or geography, according to a Free Lance analysis.
San Benito County also received less per capita than other parts of the 17th Congressional District in spite of its status as one of the most economically stressed areas in the nation.
If there had been an even distribution of the funds – based on the populations among the 11 counties examined – it would have netted San Benito County an addition of more than $10 million without increasing borrowing costs to the federal government.
The county actually has fared worse when compared directly with the four state counties closest to its population of 58,016. The weighted-average award for those four counties – Tehama (population 62,836), Lake (64,025), Tuolumne (56,335) and Calaveras (45,987) – was $487 per capita, or more than double the rate of San Benito County.
The awards for the 10 counties compared with San Benito County ranged from $244 to $954 per capita. In addition to the four counties selected because their population was closest to San Benito County, six others were selected based on their geographic proximity and economic links. Those counties were Merced (population 256,450), Santa Cruz (268,637), Monterey (431,891), San Mateo (745,858), Fresno (942,298) and Santa Clara (1,857,621).
There is no reason why the county should not expect a fair share of stimulus funding. It is one the most economically stressed areas in the entire nation, according to the Associated Press Economic Stress Index Â
Award data came from Recovery.gov – the ARRA’s official site. Population figures were from the California State Association of Counties. And the latest unemployment figures were from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The data is included in the accompanying table below.
San Benito had the second highest unemployment rate among the 11 counties studied – 17.6 percent. This was exceeded only by Merced at 18.1 percent. The lowest unemployment rate was 8.8 percent in San Mateo County. The population-weighted average for all 11 counties was 12.5 percent. San Benito’s unemployment rate tied for the seventh worst among the state’s 58 counties.
In addition to receiving lower per capita awards, San Benito County did not take advantage of the recovery act’s no-interest or low-interest loan program, according to the government’s public records.
Local leaders expressed several concerns about the data.
“Based on the county’s unemployment rate, I think we should get more ARRA funds,” said Jessica French, President/CEO of the San Benito County Chamber of Commerce. She added how she hopes more of that funding also would be available to the private sector to create much-needed jobs.
County Supervisor Pat Loe indicated she had seen the problem of the county’s funding shortages at times in the past. “That’s typical,” said Loe, who went on to indicate she had looked into the same problem concerning the state Legislature. “It’s all about being well represented in Sacramento.”
District 1 County Supervisor Margie Barrios said the county is “far off the beaten path.”
“We need to get some familiar faces in front of the decision makers and we need to find out how the other counties went about being more successful,” she said.
She also expressed concern that the county did not have sufficient shovel-ready projects and that some counties may have a political advantage based on the way representation is structured.  Â
Hollister Mayor Victor Gomez was concerned about the politics in the funding process and project decisions.
“The county is not a big-dollar player in the grant and funding game,” he said, “and there is too much concern about political recognition and credit in these programs.
“Sometimes good projects do not get funded because they will not be seen by a lot of people.”
Another way to look at the data is to evaluate the per capita awards by Congressional District and the awards to San Benito County within it. San Benito also fared poorly in that area. California’s 17th Congressional District covers all of Monterey and San Benito counties, as well as part of Santa Cruz County. All Congressional Districts have approximately the same population, 639,088. Since districts can cross county lines, the recovery act’s contract and grant amounts are not necessarily directly comparable to county numbers.
The ARRA contract and grant award total for the 17th Congressional District was reported as $25.6 million or $400 per capita, but the funds were not equally distributed within the district by population. San Benito County received only $218 per capita while the balance of the district averaged $418 per capita.
One of the biggest District 17 recipients was the University of California, Santa Cruz, with 50 awards totaling more than $27 million.
This story will appear in the Free Lance on Tuesday.
ARRA Funding Table: listed in order with population, grant totals, per capita award amounts and unemployment rates:
Santa Clara:
1,857,621
$645.5M
$347
11.0%
Fresno:
942,298
$400.9M
$425
15.9%
San Mateo:
745,858
$322.8M
$433
8.8%
Monterey:
431,891
$139.3M
$323
11.0%
Santa Cruz:
268,637
$108.8M
$405
11.5%
Merced:
256,450
$99.1M
$387
18.1%
Lake:
64,025
$15.6M
$244
17.1%
Tehama:
62,836
$59.9M
$954
15.1%
San Benito:
58,016
$12.6M
$218
17.6%
Tuolumne:
56,335
$16.9M
$299
13.5%
Calaveras:
45,987
$19.2M
$417
14.9%
