By Gabe Bullard
Louisville, KY – One of the more deeply felt effects of the federal stimulus package could be the continued survival of local governments. That's according to Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear, who addressed the annual Local Issues Conference today in Louisville. Beshear says the stimulus has helped the state balance the budget, and the spending on road projects has brought jobs to struggling areas. He says the state's best hope for coming out of recession will be to go after more stimulus dollars.
"The feeling of a lot of people is when you get into a downturn like this you sort of hunker down and wait it out. I think that's just the wrong attitude I think we should do just the opposite, and that's what we're doing. We're being aggressive."
About 660 million stimulus dollars have been spent in Kentucky so far. The state is set to receive a total of three billion dollars, with more available through competitive grants.