Tracking the Stimulus

Eileen NorcrossSr. Research Fellow State and Local Policy ProjectThe Mercatus Center at George Mason University

July 23, 2009

Why is it hard to track federal money?What kinds of data do government agencies collect

and why?

Compliance

Performance Measurement

Communicating with Citizens?

Oversight déjà vu?

The Stimulus is unique because of its sizeand its intents

Majority of programs (73 of 109 funded) in place years, or decades.

How do we know what programs buy?Agencies do collect data on programs

Programs are monitored by agencies, GAO, IGs

Range of detail, quality, timeliness, meaningfulness

Details and Consistency

Not required of agencies until the Federal FundingAccountability and Transparency Act of 2006

The Community Development Block Grant“What does the federal government buy with CDBG

dollars?”

72 possible activities Hundreds of cities Thousands of sub-grantees Impossible to get a national picture?

Starting with HUD

14E ED

Rehabilitation: Publicly or Privately Owned Commercial/Industrial $30,822,319.43

17A EDCommercial/Industrial Land Acquisition/Disposition $10,842,712.40

17B EDCommercial/Industrial Infrastructure Development $50,858,564.42

17C ED

Commercial/Industrial Building Acquisition, Construction, Rehabilitation $15,747,891.58

17D EDOther Commercial/Industrial Improvements $11,712,949.15

18A ED

ED Direct: Financial Assistance to For-Profit Businesses $152,856,479.58

18B EDED Direct: Technical Assistance $41,074,274.30

18C ED Micro-Enterprise Assistance $29,144,861.15

   Subtotal for: Economic Development $343,060,052.01

Approach from the state/city level

PDFs for individual cities

Jersey City, N.J.

$1.76 million on housing rehab in 2008

Finding Out

Where, What, Who? Try the City’s CAPER report

e.g. “$5000 to YMCA for building repairs” Need to read thousands of CAPERs or

PDFs of CAPERs If you dig, you’ll find. But, it’s impossible to

get trends, relationships, perspectives

Meant to fill the void: Basic, meaningful details on individual transactions for all contracts, grants, and assistance programs in a searchable, structured, open format.

Where do CDBG dollars go?

Grant data is available, searchable, downloadable structured formats

Bergen City, N.J. $10.4 million CDBG in 2008

But, details are slow to appear.

Details are Required by Law

USASpending.gov is working on subgrant data

Why so slow?

Moving from old to new reporting structures between state, local and federal.

Each agency has its own data reporting practices, systems, relationships with grantees

Data collection is not ‘real-time’ but driven by compliance reports.

CDBG and the Mayors

Yet, the Mayors know what CDBG buys.

The Federal Government and individual citizens, don’t always.

USCM provided transaction-level, meaningful, straightforward details for the nation, in a timely –

anticipatory – fashion.

Stimulus Genesis

Governors and Mayors ask for bailout in September/October 2008

Congress asks how money should be spent

Shovel Ready The US Conference of Mayors Report “Ready-to-go” in October 2008

When states and cities accept federal funds

Transparency is required where public dollars change hands.

Accountability rests with those who disburse it.

The most meaningful data is where the money is spent.

USASpending.gov is progress in the right direction

The Mayor’s Report: The Right Idea

•Transaction-level, meaningful, basic details

•Online

•Citizens can evaluate it

•It hasn’t been updated since

What Can Congress Do?

A full “household” accounting of public spending is owed to the people.

Citizens are best placed to evaluate spending where dollars “hit the ground.” Knowledge is dispersed.

Principles for collecting and disseminating spending data.

Old-time hierarchical reporting vs. cyberspace and crowdsourcing

Closing Thoughts

Stimulus shines a light on the state of fiscal federalism

40+ years of grants-in-aid to states…why the continuing mysteries?

Is Transparency a Double-Edged Sword?

GAO – decades documenting dysfunctions

“No Pilot” budgeting?