This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Feb. 24, 2009 - Singer Paul Simon penned a hit song, and made a fortune, by detailing the 50 ways to leave one's lover.
Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon is hoping the state can benefit even more by checking out Missourians' 550 ways to spend the stimulus. Missouri's portion is expected to be around $4 billion, although a goodly chunk is earmarked for certain programs or specific types of spending.
As of 11:15 a.m. Tuesday, his staff says, "less than 24 hours after launching Transform.mo.gov, individual Missourians, businesses, organizations and local governments had submitted more than 440 ideas and proposals to create jobs and transform the Show-Me State’s economy."
As of 1:30 p.m., the count was close to 550.
Said the governor in a statement: "I’m thrilled to see so many Missourians participating in this process...about how we can train our workforce, enhance our information and transportation infrastructure and embrace emerging technologies to create the jobs of tomorrow. I look forward to reviewing all these suggestions with my Transform Missouri team, and I encourage Missourians to keep their ideas coming at such a steady clip.”
On the Web site, the public, businesses, groups or local governments can make a general suggestion -- or go into great detail with specifics.
In any case, we trust that the ideas are a bit more constructive than Simon's "slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan..."
Maybe the new tune will be "Here's what we say, Jay...."
