Mary Jo Kilroy, Democratic candidate in the new 3rd Congressional District, was joined by supporters at the intersection of North High and Hudson streets today to celebrate the third anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Kilroy represented the 15th Congressional District in 2009 when President Barack Obama proposed the $787 million stimulus program to help a nation wracked by recession.

Kilroy recalled that the "economy was in a shambles and we were hemorrhaging jobs" when the recovery act became effective. She credited the "bold and swift action" taken by Obama and supporters of the act for helping "to keep teachers in the classroom, to put police officers on the street and to help rebuild our crumbling infrastructure." Across the country, Kilroy said, the stimulus funding created or saved three million jobs "and gave the economy the boost it so desperately needed to stave off another great depression."

Kilroy held the event at an intersection included in $3 million worth of road improvements funded by the recovery act, creating 84 jobs. Three years ago, while in Congress, Kilroy was joined at the same intersection in a ceremony that included Mayor Michael B. Coleman and U.S. Rep. James Oberstar of Minnesota, then chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Kilroy said she would have preferred more stimulus money for infrastructure projects, but went along with a compromise involving Republicans and Democrats for the $787 million.

"Many of us would have liked to have seen a bigger investment in transportation and infrastructure, but we were able to invest in teachers and public health and community health centers (and) invest in growth, and bridges and sewers here. I would have liked to have seen more of that."