Paterson Releases Delicious Stimulus $ Report: NYC Gets $8.16 Billion

Governor Paterson released a report today showing where the $18 billion that New York State got in stimulus money is going. You'll be pleased to hear that the counties comprising New York City receive by far the most American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds -- $8.16 billion. Hooray! Second place is Suffolk County, with $1.1 billion -- clearly, it takes money to make money.

Poor Niagara County, one of the hardest-hit counties in this recession, gets a mere $632 million. Of course when you think of it as $2,947 per Niagara County resident, it seems more cheerful.

It's amazing that New York City actually gets more "agriculture" spending money than Niagara -- $850 million versus $12 million -- until you realize almost all of that is for the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program, aka food stamps. We don't usually associate Chef Boyardee with agriculture, but that's how it shakes out. (NYC does not get any "Assistance to Rural Law Enforcement" money; all $288,000 of that goes to Chenango County.)

Biggest items on the list for the whole state: surprise, Unemployment ($3.94 billion), followed by Medicaid ($2.69 billion) and food stamps ($1.26 billion).