Good News: NJ Contractors Charged $27 Per Light Bulb Under Stimulus Weatherization Program: "
The weatherization program in the stimulus boondoggle is perhaps the poster child of all that was wrong with the bill. The last time I wrote on this was in September:
'The government can't even get out of it's own way.' Stimulus weatherization program a bust in Michigan due to absurd regulations. Unfortunately, it is getting in its own way in spending some of that dough, attaching to the spending measures an absurd number of requirements. American Thinker had this back in March:
The Weatherization Boondoggle. '
Leave it to the left to turn something as sensible as insulating your house into a big-government organized-labor boondoggle.' Gateway Pundit had this:
Obama’s Weatherizing Program Costing Taxpayers $57,362 For Each Home. Also here: '
Cash for Caulkers… Government Spent
$2 Million of Stimulus Money to Caulk 7 Homes.' Before that I had this related post in February:
Report: $5 billion federal weatherization program intended to save energy and create jobs has done neither, 9,100 homes weatherized compared to 593,000 that were supposed to be. Obama's Earth Day speech,
April 23, 2009:
We are providing grants to states to help weatherize hundreds of thousands of homes, which will save the families that benefit about $350 each year. That’s like a $350 tax cut.
Looks like that 'tax cut' isn't what it was cracked up to be, due to government inefficiency. Never mind that a real tax cut is when the government confiscates less of your money, rather than you paying less for a commodity.Speaking of commodities, $27 for a single light bulb? From Bloomberg:
New Jersey Auditor Questions $27 Light Bulbs Billed Under Stimulus ProgramContractors billed New Jersey $27 for light bulbs, and ran up tens of thousands of dollars in other “unreasonable costs” on a $119 million weatherization program funded with U.S. stimulus money, the state auditor said.
Out of $613,600 in charges reviewed, $54,000, or 8.8 percent, was deemed unreasonable by Auditor Stephen Eells, according to a Nov. 8 report to lawmakers. ...
One contractor sought $27 for light bulbs, while another billed $1.50 for similar items, according to the report and Assistant Auditor Thomas Meseroll. Another vendor charged $75 for carbon-monoxide detectors that it had provided to a different program for $22, the report said. Eells also cited $32,700 in auditing fees when “no services had been performed” and $69,000 in construction costs that couldn’t be verified.
“Weatherization agencies have been reimbursed for unreasonable costs because of inadequate review of financial reports and lack of guidance from the state and federal governments,” said the audit. It said the state agency’s review of contractor expenditures was “cursory.”
...The $27 included “labor and materials” for compact fluorescent light bulbs, Lisa Ryan, a spokeswoman for the department, said today in an e-mailed response to questions.
How many contractors does it take to put up a light bulb? Just one, but it'll cost you! Why the shock that when a boat load of taxpayer money is poured into the trough and only unions hacks are allowed to drink that some will take advantage and gouge the system?
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