This week Gov. Bill Ritter commemorated the start of Colorado’s first highway project funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known the Obama stimulus plan.
As part of the groundbreaking ceremony, Ritter unveiled the highway signs that will mark each stimulus-funded project.
State of Colo.
According to a Colorado Department of Transportation press release, “Because these projects are unique from typical federally-funded projects, [the Federal Highway Administration] provided guidelines for design layout and color and strongly encouraged states to post these signs on all projects funded by ARRA.”
While the signage is only strongly encouraged and not required, why wouldn’t Ritter want to post them all over the state? It’s a quick way to tie his name to a project he really has nothing to do with. Perhaps Chantell Taylor should investigate whether these signs violate some sort of campaign finance prohibition on taxpayer-funded electioneering.
The cost for these shamelessly self-promoting signs can range anywhere from $594 to $1,237 depending on the size of the sign, with taxpayers footing the bill for each one. CDOT was unable to immediately provide data about how many signs have been installed. So we had to do a little math of our own. To date, CDOT has committed funds for 32 projects across the state. According to an e-mail from CDOT spokeswoman Stacey Stegman, "Each project is different and it depends on if there is a location to safely install a sign. Most will have one sign in each direction at the start of each project but some may have one sign one and others no sign."
Let's assume for a moment that all 32 projects only have one sign - a conservative estimate. If each sign was on the small side, that means the total cost for signage would be around $19,000. If all the sings were big and cost closer to the $1,237 range, then the total cost of signage could be nearly $40,000.
Instead of crediting the ARRA and Ritter for “putting America to work” it would be more appropriate for these signs to read: “Thank you taxpayers.”