Governor Parkinson’s web site includes a page about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and its impact on Kansas.

A bar chart on that page shows that the biggest use of “stimulus” funds is for education. 

This table shows a breakdown of stimulus spending with a total stimulus expenditure of $670.7 million.

But wait. In that table the $159.2 million expenditure for “Qualified school construction bond program” has a “**” footnote:

**Total amount statewide which schools could issue in lease/purchase and on new construction projects. Savings would be in form of interest they would not have to pay.

So, we’re using $159.2 million in stimulus spending to realize interest savings on bonds?  But that $159.2 million is new debt. We’re trading “saved interest” for more debt? What we’re doing is only increasing the debt and the interest we owe.

Why don’t more understand that we must not only pay back the principal on this new “stimulus” debt, but also pay interest on this new debt too?   “Stimulus” money is NOT free money.

This simply does not compute for a “stimulus” savings.