Don Rypkema does the math

We are so delighted that fellow preservationist Don Rypkema has done the math for us about the stimulus effect of two important federal grant programs.

The recent announcement by the White House about the elimination of grant programs Save America’s Treasures and the Preserve America program has rocked the preservation community.  A White House report discussing the program elimination notes that  ”Both programs lack rigorous performance metrics and evaluation efforts so the benefits are unclear.”  I guess the 220 grant awardees would see the benefit of these important programs, along with the countless others who applied but were not selected.

In his blog Place Economics, our good friend Don Rypkema says the following:

“Here’s the story:

Between 1999 and 2009, the Save America’s Treasures program allocated around $220 million dollars for the restoration of nearly 900 historic structures, many of them National Historic Landmarks. This investment by the SAT program generated in excess of $330 million from other sources. This work meant 16,012 jobs (a job being one full-time equivalent job for one year…the same way they are counting jobs for the Stimulus Program). The cost per job created? $13,780.

This compares with the White House announcement that the Stimulus Package is creating one job for every $248,000. Whose program is helping the economy?

I know they aren’t stupid at the White House. Are they just too damned lazy to make the most basic of analyses?

Or did they conclude that the preservation movement was just so impotent that they could kick it around with impunity?”

Read all of Don’s blog post here, and don’t forget to add comments.
http://www.placeeconomics.com/2010/02/save-americas-treasures-update.html

Thanks Don for doing the math.  Why would anyone say 13K is better than 240K is beyond me. The National Trust is gearing up for a fight on this one.  Please start contacting your Congressperson how much this program has meant to your area. The NPS web site has the list of all the grants awarded over the years so you can be very specific about the benefits.  http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/treasures/

The National Trust has a nifty feature on its blog that allows you to contact your Congressperson.  You can access it here. http://www.preservationnation.org/travel-and-sites/save-americas-treasures/

However, a phone call to the district office often is a better bet than sending an email. Even better yet, a visit to the district office to meet the staffer in charge of NPS issues would be an excellent use of your time. I have already sent a letter to my Senators and Representative.  Hope you will too.

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