Local business one of many waiting for federal assistance

MANHATTAN--Interactive Elements, a public transportation consulting firm, is one of many businesses in the Manhattan area in line to receive federal stimulus money from the federal government. The small company's has not received its funds and is currently feeling the brunt of complicated governmental procedure.


"I think the program is a joke," said Edmond Boni, the company's Vice President for Transportation. Boni claims that the company hasn't seen any money from the stimulus, and members of the staff have been laid off.


With the burden of a heavy economy sinking onto their shoulders, thousands of business owners are scratching to get a piece of the $787 billion stimulus package which was signed into law with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in February 2009.


Interactive Elements' website states that it has been overseeing the New Jersey Transit's capital program as well as an $800 million commuter railroad located in North Carolina. Some of the company's clients include Amtrak, New York Metro Transit Authority, and various state Departments of Transportation.


According to the federal government's funds tracking site, www.recovery.gov, only $8 billion in payments have been received and $28 billion are still pending for the first quarter 2010. The average waiting period for a properly filed request is eight to 12 weeks, according to the Internal Revenue Services website. 

Interactive Elements' reward was listed as $94,217, and the company was one of over 150,000 who have applied for grants (not including loans and contracts) since the beginning of the first quarter 2010.

The company falls under The Department of Transportation (DOT) for funding. According to the Recovery website, The DOT "will distribute 77 percent (approximately $37 billion) of its total Recovery Act funding through major grants programs."


Without the stimulus money, work has been slow at Interactive Elements. When asked how the company planned to use their federal money, Boni responded by saying that he did not know, and that he could not make any guesses until the company received their funds.


In order to apply for grants, the applicants must meet a certain set of requirements, such as location and project. Currently, the number of jobs created with stimulus money is listed by Recovery.gov as 682,226 positions. More than 34,000 have been opened in the Department of Transportation, and nearly 19,000 across all departments for New York State.


The federal government has already distributed $202 billion (about 26%) of the total allotted amount for the package. However, with less than a third having been delivered from the last quarter the awards are moving slowly.

When the stimulus was approved by Congress, it contained a $275 billion portion for federal grants, contracts and loans, only a small part of the full sum of $787 billion.


Recovery.gov explains that as of June 22 2009, the Department of Transportation has determined that four programs under its umbrella are to be tested annually for improper payments. The Office of the Inspector General for the DOT reviewed the agency's sampling for improper stimulus payments made in 2008, and found that results were difficult to extrapolate due to small sample size.


When asked what his company planned to do when and if it received any funds, Ed Boni of Interactive Elements replied, "spend it."