Republicans target Nevada stimulus

WASHINGTON -- Republican Sens. John McCain and Tom Coburn singled out two Nevada grants Tuesday while listing 100 economic stimulus projects they described as wasteful spending.

The senators charged the $787 billion stimulus bill enacted early last year has contributed to record government spending that "has not shortened the nation's unemployment lines. Eighteen months since the law's passage, millions of jobs are still gone and the economy is as uncertain as ever."

The Nevada grants at issue are $490,000 to make 2,500 trees available to groups to plant, a cost of $196 per tree, and $620,000 toward a wood-burning power plant at a state prison, a plant the prisons system director now says is too expensive to operate.

Other projects criticized by Coburn, who is from Oklahoma, and McCain, who is from Arizona, include:

■ $554,000 to replace windows in a Mount St. Helens visitor center that was closed in 2007.

■ $144,541 for researchers at Wake Forest University to study how monkeys react after taking cocaine.

■ $1.9 million for research by the California Academy of Sciences into exotic ants found on islands in the Indian Ocean. Photos would be posted on a website devoted to the world's ants.

Democrats dismissed the list , titled "Summertime Blues, 100 stimulus projects that give taxpayers blues."

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked if the Obama administration considered it to be credible.

"From what I've read, no," he said. "I think this has ... much more to do with politics."

Gibbs said Moody's economist Mark Zandi has written that an additional 8.5 million jobs would have been lost without the stimulus and other actions taken by the Obama administration.

The Republicans' report, the third in a series, reopened debate, including in the Nevada U.S. Senate race, over the Obama administration's strategy for reviving the economy by pumping money into programs it said would create jobs and spur further investment.

The White House Council on Economic Advisers said last month the stimulus act raised employment by between 2.5 million and 3.6 million jobs "over what it would otherwise have been."

"There is no question the stimulus bill has had a positive effect on the economy to a certain degree, and what our criticism is, is it could have had a far greater effect," Coburn said.

The Nevada grant at issue was $490,000 from the U.S. Forest Service to make 2,500 trees available to Nevada organizations willing to plant them.

Some of the funds also were earmarked for tree care classes for Spanish-speaking landscapers, and for a city tree inventory.

State forester Pete Anderson told the Nevada News Bureau last month the project was in line with the goals of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. But Coburn and McCain picked up on criticism of the grant from Assemblyman John Hambrick, R-Las Vegas, who challenged whether it would create jobs. Broken down, the cost per tree was $196.

Another was $620,000 toward a wood-burning power plant at the Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City.

The plant cost $8.8 million, including $6.5 million in state money.

Department of Corrections Director Howard Skolnick said in May the plant is too expensive to operate and he wanted to sell it or shut it down by the end of the summer.

The project's supporters included Nevada Republicans Sen. John Ensign and Rep. Dean Heller. It was envisioned to supply the prison's hot water and generate electricity to eliminate a $40,000 monthly power bill, and even to sell excess to NV Energy.

According to state prison officials quoted by the Nevada Appeal, the plant's design was not large enough to enable it to be run profitably. One problem was the facility was too complex to be run by prison labor.

In Nevada, the Republicans' report was seized on by GOP Senate challenger Sharron Angle as ammunition against Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev.

"Harry Reid promised his $787 billion stimulus bill would create jobs. Instead of creating jobs, this wasteful bill has piled on more massive debt and more unemployment in Nevada since the bill's passage," Angle press secretary Jerry Stacy said.

"While Republicans continue to root for a bad economy, we know the Recovery Act is helping Nevadans," Reid spokesman Jon Summers said. "While Sharron Angle is running on a platform of no, no, no, Senator Reid is working on solutions to get Nevada's economy back on track."

More than 70,000 stimulus projects are under way. Coburn said roughly 300 have been identified as wasteful or misdirected, costing taxpayers $15 billion.

While not accepting the premise the spending was wasteful, White House officials said that was less than 1 percent of the stimulus.

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.