The University of Arizona is spending $144,000 to study Hiaki, an endangered tribal language spoken by fewer than 80 aging people in the state. Researchers plan to catalog everything they can about the language.

 

At Arizona State University, a grant of $500,000 is being spent to study the genetic differences between queen and worker ants.

 

If those studies sound like routine academic research-grant projects, they aren't. They are federal economic-stimulus projects.

 

In many respects, the $787 billion stimulus is straightforward and its projects are traditional government work involving construction, renovation and services. Road-building, upgrading military barracks and paying for local police are typical grants.

 

But some projects are head-scratchers, at least to critics. They involve arcane research; do not address immediate, essential public needs; or don't create or save many jobs. Such projects aren't taboo under the stimulus but have drawn fire from lawmakers who argue they do little to help the economy or industry.

 

Leslie Tolbert, vice president for research at UA, defended the Hiaki grant from the National Science Foundation, noting the stimulus is primarily about saving or creating jobs, and all grants accomplish this. The Hiaki project is expected to create or save about one job.

 

"In every technical field, each question looks very small to the outsider, but it adds to the building blocks . . . of knowledge," Tolbert said.

 

The ASU project is only a tiny piece of more than $50 million in stimulus grants to the school. Most are for applied research in alternative energy. The ant study does further knowledge of evolution and societal behavior, which sheds light on understanding humans, said Rick Shangraw, ASU vice president of research and economic affairs. The project also preserves two jobs this fiscal quarter, he said.

A principal purpose of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is to "create new jobs as well as save existing ones," with a focus on infrastructure improvement, according to recovery .gov, the federal Web site for the program. The stimulus also should "spur economic activity and invest in long-term economic growth."

 

Those missions create a broad umbrella that could include almost any project or industry that contributes to economic activity.

 

But in politics, stimulus projects are being viewed by skeptics with one overriding measure: Is the work necessary?

 

"The disappointing reality of President Obama's $787 billion stimulus bill is that is has been less about creating jobs and more about wasteful spending on pork projects," said Sara Sendek, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee. In addition, she said, "these projects have driven our country deeper into debt."

 

Democratic leaders applaud the effects of the stimulus, saying it has fueled economic growth and saved or created jobs across the full spectrum of the U.S. economy during a historic crisis.

 

During a visit to Arizona last week, Vice President Joe Biden said more than 2 million Arizonans received tax cuts from the stimulus and thousands of workers have kept their jobs.

 

Three other Arizona stimulus projects fall into a gray area that can lead to debate over what should and shouldn't merit stimulus funding:

 

• At a time when many government agencies are slashing their staffing levels, the federal Administration for Children and Families is using stimulus money to grant 1.8 percent pay raises. In Phoenix, that amounts to $400,000 for the city's Head Start staff and $203,000 for Chicanos Por La Causa, a community-development non-profit, according to data from the White House. Luis Rosero of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, of which Children and Families is a part, told the Associated Press that the raises were appropriate because "if I give you a raise, it is going to save a portion of your job."

 

• Peoria is scheduled to get $1.7 million from the Bureau of Reclamation, in part to temporarily convert its baseball stadium's watering system from treated to untreated water. The water would sprinkle the turf shared in the spring by the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners. The change is intended as an interim step until the city can run its reclaimed-water pipeline to the area.

 

Robin Bain, who manages water resources for Peoria, said the project meets stimulus requirements for being "shovel-ready" and will save taxpayers about $100,000 annually. Peoria will split the costs with the federal government.

 

• ASU received a $168,000 stimulus grant to study how friends of a school child impact that child's academic performance or affect whether the child turns to drugs. Shangraw said results could contribute to findings about how to improve the way children are brought up.

 

In June, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., compiled a list of 100 stimulus projects, costing $5.5 billion, that he deemed wasteful.

 

Topping his list was a wastewater-treatment plant in Perkins, Okla. A $1.5 million federal grant came with requirements that have forced the town to raise utility rates by 60 percent, Coburn said.

 

In response, the White House said communities that build new utility plants typically face higher rates in the short term but save in the long run.

 

The only Arizona project on Coburn's list was a $5.4 million grant for Phoenix Police Department equipment. Coburn said it didn't create jobs.

 

"There was no question that the nation's economic condition demanded bold action. Nor is there any question that the massive amount of stimulus spending so far has created some new jobs," Coburn wrote. "In my estimation, Congress chose the wrong approach to stimulating the economy by spending money we don't have on things we don't need."

 

He proposed instead that taxes and government regulation be reduced.

 

The stimulus program also funds projects indirectly by freeing up other government money. Such projects haven't come under as much scrutiny or criticism from opposition groups.

 

In Phoenix, for example, work crews are expected early next year to replace 27 aging streetlights along Palmcroft Drive in the Encanto neighborhood.

 

It's part of a $940,000 project that had been considered for stimulus funds by the Arizona Department of Transportation. Instead, other federal funds freed up by the stimulus pay for the streetlights project.

 

The new high-pressure sodium lights aren't especially energy-efficient, and the old ones work, although they are unattractive, said Ray Dovalina, deputy street-transportation director for Phoenix.

 

"Not everything is going to be green," he said, referring to the project. "We're trying to do something the community has asked for."