Where Is The Stimulus Transparency?

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Surveys show 80 percent of Oklahomans claim to have at least "some" knowledge of the $787 billion federal stimulus bill, while fewer claim to know specifics of the stimulus money coming to Oklahoma.

The truth is there's quite a big difference between having "some" knowledge of how the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act is supposed to work and how it's actually working.

If you go to the state's stimulus Web site you'll find a nice chart showing where Oklahoma's $2.6 billion in stimulus funding is intended to go, but if you're looking for specifics, you won't find much of anything, not yet anyway.

Oklahoma's Director of the Office of State Finance, Michael Clingman, said that's because states aren't required to begin reporting stimulus expenditures until October 10th.

"That's when all the web sites around the country, I think, you'll see them change quite a bit," Clingman said.

Clingman has the job of maintaining Oklahoma's stimulus web site. He said any expenditure of $25,000 or more has to be reported to the federal government, and thus will also be detailed on the state web site.

"We hope it will be interactive so that you can click through and find out, on any given project, exactly where the money went and how much came in, and how much is left for the next project," Clingman said.

The state's $2.6 billion is coming from a variety of federal agencies, and not all at once. For example, the Oklahoma State Department of Education is slated to get about $110 million in Title I funding. To this point, the state has received half of that, and, of that amount ($54.7 million), only about eight percent had been spent by the end of August.

ODOT, on the other hand, has spent 25 percent of the $465 million it was appropriated. Eighty-eight percent of that money has been obligated in projects across the state. That is one of the highest percentages in the nation.

Secretary of State Susan Savage said the dollars are to be spent quickly.

"They're for projects that are ready to go," she said. 

Savage likens her stimulus role to that of a traffic cop trying to direct the numerous agencies seeking stimulus money to the right stimulus stream.

"This is important, we need to do it right. These are resources available to the state and we want to maximize their potential for the benefit of the citizens of our state," Savage said.

Matt Guillory, with the non-partisan think-tank Oklahoma Policy Institute, says doing this right means more than just spending the stimulus money quickly, it means spending it wisely.

"The decisions that we make now are going to have long implications, not only on us, but on the next generation of Oklahomans," Guillory said.

Generally speaking, the stimulus money has to be spent over the next two years or it goes back to Washington.