St. Cloud seen as symbol of lagging stimulus

Photo: The UpTake

The Obama Administration held up St. Cloud as a measure of the federal stimulus’ promise when Vice President Biden held a town hall meeting at a bus factory there in March. Two investigative journalism enterprises, The Takeaway and ProPublica, check on how St. Cloud is faring and find that the stimulus hasn’t meant any new jobs at New Flyer of America yet.

In a story cross-published at MinnPost, ProPublica points out that New Flyer is doing well regardless of whether the stimulus sends transportation or energy-related funds its way.

The Takeaway’s audio report plays a clip from Biden’s presentation in March, saying, “We want to invest not just in getting people jobs right now; what we want to do is lay a foundation for the 21st century … to lead the world.” St. Cloud residents interviewed for the report aren’t seeing it “right now” … yet.

ProPublica says the delay even with “shovel-ready” transportation-related projects is partly due to the hurdle of ensuring union labor is used.