You'd think that an 80% subsidy for long-term investment in high-speed rail would get states moving speedily down the tracks. Turns out that in budget crunch times, even that much money isn’t enough. That’s what the federal government is finding in its latest round of stimulus grants for high-speed rail, which require a 20% match from states. According to the article by Josh Mitchell for Dow Jones Newswires, most states don’t have dedicated passenger rail funding sources to make their 20 percent contribution.

A number of states are rolling out stimulus-backed energy retrofit programs for state buildings, writes Christine Vestal for Stateline. For every federal dollar spent, the article notes, states are expecting to see $7.22 in energy savings. Not bad at all. We previously told you about what’s happening with Kentucky’s Green Bank. In her piece, Vestal describes projects in Massachusetts and Arizona.

Did the stimulus work? That’s the $64,000 question. NPR’s Planet Money podcast team asked a couple of economists that question and got two very simple answers: “yes” and “no.” Read and listen to “The Great Stimulus Experiment” to find out if we’ll ever have a good sense of whether or not the stimulus turned the economy around.

One broadband stimulus program grantee is expected to make Vermont the first state in the country where everyone has access to broadband coverage. For the full and interesting story of how VTel got the award and what happens next, check out this Valley News article by Chris Fleisher and Gregory Trotter. Vermont Telephone Company originally applied for a smaller grant with a narrower scope, which got rejected. Only then did they apply for, and win, a $116 million grant to provide wireless broadband to all of Vermont. As the article details, not everyone in the state is entirely happy about it either.

How many different stimulus funding streams are there? Dan Popkey’s cleverly titled Idaho Statesman article, “How to spend Idaho's $1.6 billion stimulus funds in 1,775 easy steps,” answers that questions for his state. While he doesn’t dive into the details of every single program, the piece offers perspective on the variety of programs states are managing and the impact they have.

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