Time to Stop "Chicken Little" Politics
During my years spent in the military and as a financial auditor I have always taught my people to “trust but verify”. This still holds true politically. In these incredibly difficult times being experienced by the people of the 5th district this philosophy holds ever more true. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act a.k.a. the stimulus bill asks the American people to place a tremendous amount of trust in government as being focused on solving the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
So, when issues arose with the reporting on the stimulus website I immediately fell back on my experience in order to get to the root of the issues for myself and the people of this congressional district.
The question was recently posed ‘Where are the jobs?” that are being created by the stimulus. ABC News was the first to report that Recovery.gov showed (1)discrepancies between congressional districts being recorded and (2)a low number of jobs showing as being created or saved when compared to the dollars being spent.
After only a few minutes of simple review of the website the following root causes of these issues can be identified:
(1) Discrepancies Between congressional districts being recorded
A.) Those submitting the grant requests are not always inputting the correct congressional district in the initial request
B.) The website utilizes the initial request as the identifying factor for the congressional district designation
C.) On the recovery.gov map itself the zip codes are the identifier for the project location
(2) a low number of jobs showing as being created or saved when compared to the dollars being spent
A.) The initial grant requests are incorrectly identifying or lacking the job creation information
B.) In some instances the “Jobs” section of the website are blank but the “Project Description” identifies the number and types of jobs being created
Two specific examples of this are:
- $14,646,480 were requested by and awarded to the Florida Department of Transportation to be used in Pasco County to “add lanes and reconstruct” US 41 (SR45) from Tower Rd to Ridge Rd (Award Number 2563241ARRA037)
- Jobs cited as being created in request: 4
- Number of FTE required to complete the job: approximately 30
- $124,068 were requested by and awarded to Citrus County as part of the “Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force: Polk County”. The grant is a multi-jurisdictional task force which comprises Polk, Citrus and Lake Counties. The project write-up lists the jobs specifically being created while the “Jobs” section is blank (Award Number 2009-SN-B9-K040)
- Jobs cited as being created in “Jobs” section of request: blank
- Jobs created in the project description: 6 (2 computer forensic specialists, 1 detective in Lake County, 1 detective in Citrus County, 1 computer evidence crime laboratory analyst and 1 forensic analyst position within the FL AG office
As the next Congressman for Florida’s 5th District I promise to protect the people of the district from waste, fraud and abuse but also from the “Chicken Little” style of politics. It has always been my nature to identify the root causes of an issue and work to get them corrected. I am fighting this race for the people of the district and take great offense to those who try creating mountains out of mole hills in order to score cheap political points, regardless of their party affiliation.
Jim Piccillo is a US Army Veteran, small business consultant and former financial auditor. He entered this race to hold Ginny Brown-Waite accountable for her reckless priorities in Congress. Jim Piccillo, who believes in Pay As You Go federal spending, wants to grow renewable energy production and manufacturing within his district to bring entrepreneurs and venture capitalists to the district and create high paying jobs that can not be outsourced within a budding industry.
