Target 11 Investigates Stimulus Funds

Billions of your tax dollars have been pumped into the federal stimulus program, but where is that money really going?

It's a program designed to stimulate the economy and create jobs.

You've heard about road, bridge and other infrastructure projects, but you probably haven't heard about some other expenditures.

Pennsylvania is on track to receive as much as $10 billion dollars in stimulus funds.

Target 11 Investigator Rick Earle spent weeks following the money trail. Earle tracked down who's getting the money and how it's being spent.

What he discovered may surprise you.

An attorney in Beaver County received a $50,000 loan.

He told Target 11 he had no idea the money was part of the stimulus program.

He said he obtained the loan because he needed a line of credit.

A Blairsville man received a $150,000 loan to open a mexican restaurant.

"It was great. It was great. It was money I would have had to spend originally that I no longer have to spend," said Scott Cavender, who plans to use the savings to make improvements to Hotel Debaca.

A Sewickley health food company received a $276,000 stimulus contract to supply peanuts to food banks.

"It came to us as a surprise but it will keep us going for at least two months. We were looking for some business because we have been hurt for the last year, " said Komal Herbals owner Hasmukh Parekh, who started the company several years ago.

A $20,000 grant was given to the Pennsylvania Gunsmith School near Bellevue. The owner of the school said the grant will help students cover tuition costs.

A $37,000 grant to the Coraopolis-based Ruffed Grouse Society.

The nonprofit organization used the money to pay for a project to clear exotic vegetation from a national forest in Ohio.

The goal is to preserve the habitat for birds.

"We did know it was stimulus money going into it, but we were surprised to see it made its way going into a project like this," said Mark Banker, a biologist with the Ruffed Grouse Society.

The Pittsburgh Symphony also received a $50,000 grant. A spokesman for the symphony said the grant helped to save three jobs.

But the Pittsburgh Ballet was left out.

"It's very competitive and ultimately we didn't get it. That constitutes a shortfall in our budget. I think that these dollars were focused to a certain degree along congressional and other sort of parameters," said Executive Director Harris Ferris, who pointed out the Philadelphia art programs received substantially more stimulus money than Pittsburgh.

Ferris said the ballet had a good year and isn't struggling as much as some other cultural arts programs.

We showed all of these expenditures to the National Taxpayers Union.

"The stimulus package was sold as a kind of new deal for America, where infrastructure would be built, potholes would be filled and instead money is being spent to clear exotic vegetation---probably not the idea most people had. When you hear words like grouse and gunsmithing in the same sentence as stimulus funds you have to wonder what's really going on here in Washington, said Pete Sepp.

So how did money end up at places like the Ruffed Grouse Society, a Mexican restaurant and a health food company?

"It was rigorous, nationally vetted process that all projects had to be approved at the local level, at the national level and by the administration. It was very important that it met the criteria to maintain jobs quickly with the goal of stimulating the economy, "said Col. Mike Crall, of the U.S Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps received $139 million in a five state region, including Pennsylvania.

Crall said some of the money was used to pay for grass cutting services and building maintenance at the Conemaugh Dam in Indiana County.

The grants and contracts don't have to be paid back, but the loans must be paid in full. Target 11 put a request in to interview Senator Bob Casey and Representative Jason Altmire but they didn't respond. A spokesperson for Altmire's office told Target 11 that politics played no roll in any of the allocations.