Springfield Police Shut Out of Stimulus Money

STIMULUS SETBACK

EMERSON: "SO EGREGIOUS"

The federal government released nearly $20 million dollars in economic stimulus money Tuesday for Missouri to hire new police. But the third largest city -- and most other rural areas -- got completely shut out.

Back in April, the Springfield police department applied for $4 million dollars in grants. On Tuesday, they got the bad news.

Of the $19.7 million dollars coming to the Show-Me State, Springfield is getting nothing.
"We got shut out," said city manager Greg Burris. "We applied for 25 officers and we were notified today we got zero."

More than 7,000 law enforcement agencies from around the country applied for about $1 billion available dollars. In Missouri, a total of 242 jurisdictions applied, but just 14 received funds. And most of them are clustered near the two largest cities. It adds up to 115 new officers for the St. Louis and Kansas City metropolitan areas, and just 3 new officers for the rest of the state. "It's hard to tell whether it's fair because the Department of Justice didn't give you much detail in the formula that's used to rank the cities," said Burris.

Last month, St. Louis Police Chief Dan Isom said a drop in the department's budget meant 105 officer positions wouldn't be funded. But with this money, the department should be nearly full staffed. Meanwhile, Springfield is down about 50 officers from full capacity.

WATCH THE KY3 NEWS @ 10 REPORT HERE

READ THE BREAKDOWN OF ALL THE FUNDING & THE FORMULA HERE

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REP. JO ANN EMERSON BLASTS "BIASED" FORMULA:

"This is our tax money in rural America too, and we are being shorted on COPS law enforcement big time," Emerson said. "Our congressional districts all serve roughly the same number of constituents, and we all have acute needs for more officers and funding. For the rural part of our state to get three new officers out of 118 in Missouri is so egregious, I can't believe someone would do this on purpose."

"Frankly, this is a great example of why I voted against the stimulus in the first place. You vest all of this spending authority with bureaucrats, you rush the bill through Congress, and you end up with extreme imbalances between urban and rural parts of the country. The bill was reckless and hasty, and the implementation of the stimulus COPS grants shows the same shortcomings," Emerson continued.

CONGRESSMAN ROY BLUNT REACTS:

Blunt, who has his eye on votes in St. Louis and Kansas City for a 2010 Senate bid, was critical, but less harsh:

"One of my chief objections to the stimulus bill was the lack of public scrutiny into the way the $787 billion is spent. This round of COPS funding is no exception. I'm disappointed that Springfield and other communities were shut out and wish we had the ability to truly advocate for all of our communities in a transparent process," Blunt said in a statement provided to The Notebook.

SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL TOUTS COMPETITIVE MERIT OF GRANTS:

Meanwhile, Sen. McCaskill touted the $19.6 million dollars in grants in a press release, noting that this process better ensures "prompt distribution and better accountability."

"Funding to states and localities through the economic recovery package will be allocated through existing federal programs like these, rather than earmarks, in order to ensure prompt distribution and better accountability. Local projects receive funds from these grants by following the process set up by each program," McCaskill's office wrote in a release. "McCaskill believes that federal grants and loans are a positive alternative to earmarks, which in the past have frequently had too little accountability. Competitive merit and need based federal grants and low-interest government loans bring federal assistance to Missouri in an honest and fiscally responsible manner."