Statistics, figures, graphs, plans and predictions; this is what the Obama Administration is distributing on the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Better known as the Federal Stimulus Project, these stimulus dollars are now going out fast and furious to communities everywhere, and officials are ready to document the success this deficit increasing project has achieved. I, however, am just a little more skeptical.

A “measured approach”… this is the phrase Governor Patrick has used to defend his Administration’s plan to manage federal stimulus transportation funding known as ARRA funding. This week, Democratic Congressman James Oberstar, Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, sent a scathing letter to the Patrick Administration criticizing its lack of use of the transportation dollars that had been distributed to Massachusetts. The letter came on the heels of a recent poll released by the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure that listed Massachusetts as 49 out of the 50 states for actual spending of the federal transportation stimulus money. Of the $437 million Massachusetts has been given, only $99 million has been put to use.

I begin my first column by commenting on the very real change experienced by the Commonwealth on August 25, 2009. It is a transformation that is being felt, to no small degree, both in our nation’s Capitol and under the Golden Dome of the State House. This sad occasion is the passing of the longest serving Senator we have ever had in Massachusetts. I would like to extend my deepest condolences to the entire Kennedy family.