Update: Report: State Stimulus Tracker Websites are Mediocre
The updated report, “Show Us the Stimulus (Again)” (pdf) was released yesterday by Good Jobs First.
The good news: some states have made dramatic improvements. Maryland led in the ratings, again, but two states that were at the bottom last summer are now termed “Cinderellas” and are in the top tier: Kentucky and Illinois. Minnesota and Utah also made huge strides.
On the 1-100 rating scale:
The Top: Maryland (87), Kentucky (85), Connecticut (80),
Colorado (72), Minnesota (72), Wisconsin (72), California (69), Illinois (69), Oregon (67), Massachusetts (65),
Georgia (64), West Virginia (64), New Mexico (62), New York (62), Pennsylvania (62), Montana (61) and
Arkansas (60).
The bottom, starting at the bottom: North Dakota (5), District of Columbia (6),
Missouri (10), Alaska (13), Vermont (13), Louisiana (16), Mississippi (17), Idaho (18), Oklahoma (18), Texas
(18) and South Carolina (19).
Notable geo observations:
Geographic breakdowns (by county or other division) are less common than summaries of spending by
program category. Twenty-seven states provide geographic information, often with interactive maps.Only three states—Kentucky, Maryland and Wisconsin—juxtapose the geographic distribution of
spending with patterns of economic distress or need within the state.Besides overall spending amounts, state residents may be interested to know where individual ARRA
projects such as the repaving of a road or repair of a school building are taking place. More than half the
states (28) now have some kind of project mapping feature on their ARRA site.
- press release (pdf)
- DM podcast on previous report
—- original post - 7/30/09——
Good Jobs First, a Washington research center released a report (pdf) on Wednesday that give mediocre grades to state efforts to be transparent about the flow and impact of federal stimulus dollars. The report found particular issues with coverage of job creation, contract awards and geographic location of projects. The average grade was 28 out of 100.
Among the findings: “states failed to use widely available Web tools, such as geographic information systems software.” One suggested reason? Philip Mattera, the center’s research director and the principal author of the study suggests site developers may not be aware of states’ GIS capacity.
A statement from Deseret News notes that all states have access to a GIS template for mapping: “The most transparent state is Maryland, which uses software created by ESRI, a company specializing in geographical information systems that has contracts with all 50 states and provides a template to each state for free.”
Some states did well: “Among the handful of exceptional states that scored 50 or higher were Maryland, which scored 80, and West Virginia, which earned a 60.” Others, not so well: Illinois and Utah received “0.” Maryland and California were noted using GIS to juxtapose “the geographic disbursement of funds with patterns of economic distress, such as county unemployment rates or foreclosure levels.”
- NextGov
