Portsmouth, NH Refuses Stimulus Dollars

Here in New Hampshire, we have a new example of a city turning down stimulus money because of the unreasonable and expensive hurdles included in the legislation as a result of special interest giveaways:

As stimulating as it might have sounded at the time, the city recently declined $2.5 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for its new water treatment plant because federal wage regulations would have forced the city to pay more for the project.

Ranked as the fifth most pressing drinking water project in the state, the state Department of Environmental Services awarded the city $5 million in March 2009 for the project — half of which would be a grant, and the other half borrowed from the state's low-interest revolving loan fund. The award required the city issue an addendum to the request for bids, which was issued a month earlier, asking bidders to include the stimulus money in their proposed budgets.

When the bids came in, the low bidder — Penta Corporation — presented final cost of $21 million with the stimulus funds and $17.3 million without.

So the city said thanks, but no thanks, to the stimulus funds.

"It just didn't make sense," said Deputy Public Works Director David Allen. "It was going to cost us more money to take the money."