A Governing Magazine forum asked what lasting impact the stimulus bill (ARRA) would have on state and local governments. There seemed to be some talk about the nudge it could provide to more open and transparent government, but more hopeful was the possibility that the bill would end the failed model of more centralized government. At least that’s how I take the quote below.


Mark Muro, policy director for the Metropolitan Policy Program at The Brookings Institution, was blunt about the stimulus’ ultimate effect: “I don’t think ARRA will be seen as transformative at all,” he said. “I think it will be seen as one of the last gasps of federal business-as-usual, a highly visible case-study of the way we’ve delivered government services for the past 30 years.”