This is what transparency looks like to the federal government:
The Web site for the government's economic stimulus program says Georgia will get millions of dollars for public transportation. How much for Atlanta? Finding that detail requires a careful reading of the March 5 edition of the government's omnibus of official data, the Federal Register.
In arcane language and minuscule type, pages 9,656 through 9,691 describe the ways local transit systems may qualify for stimulus funding. Only in Table 2 of Appendix C do the specifics finally appear: $85.1 million for Atlanta, along with much smaller amounts for 14 other Georgia cities.
Despite assurances that the largest government spending program ever also will be the most open, following the money from Washington to its final destinations can be tedious, if not next to impossible.
The federal government has created at least 27 Web sites to let taxpayers oversee the $787 billion stimulus program. But the sites lead to a maze of rules, regulations, charts, maps and tables that depict some spending plans in detail and others with the broadest of brushes.
Georgia, too, has launched a "stimulus accountability" Web site. But after almost a month, it contains almost no information. And even when officials fill out the details, they won't track how money that flows directly from the federal government to local agencies in Georgia is spent.
Taxpayers need to know more about the stimulus spending and shouldn't have to work so hard to find it, said Alan Essig, executive director of the Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, which studies the state's spending and tax policies.
"It's very important that we understand how much money we get, where it's going and what the impact is," Essig said. "There should be a central database or source of information to show who gets what. If it's flowing into Georgia, there should be a central source to show us that.
"Even if it's $200,000 being spent in Hahira, Georgia, we ought to be able to know that."
Federal officials say they are moving quickly to establish an oversight system for the stimulus program. But as of late last week, the Recovery Act Transparency and Accountability Board, created to monitor the program, still had neither office space nor telephones.
Still, Earl Devaney, the board's chairman, told local government officials attending a conference in Washington last week that uniform standards will be set to track spending and measure its results, which will be posted on the stimulus Web site. Already, he said, the site is getting 3,900 hits per second.
"That's going to generate ... inquiries: 'Hey, why did this toilet cost whatever?' " Devaney said, according to a press-pool account of the conference.
By mid-May, each federal agency is supposed to begin releasing detailed reports on where the money is going. By mid-July, recipients are supposed to disclose how they're spending it.
But now, even as the government makes almost daily announcements, involving billions of dollars, a great deal about the stimulus program remains unknown.
In Georgia, officials aren't even sure exactly how much money is coming to the state.
The total for state government could run as high as $6 billion by 2011, according to the National Governors Association's estimates. But the Center for American Progress, a progressive policy group based in Washington, says government agencies, other organizations and individuals in Georgia could receive almost $16 billion.
By the end of last week, federal agencies had announced about $4.6 billion in funding for Georgia. Almost three-fourths will be split between transportation and education projects. Other grants will provide funding for, among others, public health clinics, homelessness prevention programs, public housing projects and law enforcement agencies.
The stimulus program will create or preserve 106,000 jobs in Georgia during the next two years, federal officials say.
But the federal government hasn't yet told states how to measure the effectiveness of stimulus spending. Some analysts, such as Essig, doubt that a precise count is even possible.
"I don't think it's going to be a science," he said. "I don't think you can count it to the person."
With that in mind, state officials are moving deliberately in planning how to spend stimulus money, said Bert Brantley, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue. Before accepting grants, Brantley said, Perdue wants to "make sure there's an appropriate place for the money to go."
The General Assembly already has approved spending $467 million in stimulus money during the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends June 30. Most of it covers Medicaid reimbursements. Perdue has proposed using $1.1 billion in the fiscal 2010 budget and will have more to work with for fiscal 2011.
But Perdue compares the influx of money during an economic recession to a thunderstorm in a drought.
"If it comes down so hard so fast, a lot of it runs off," Brantley said. "The temptation is to use it all in a hurry. You have to be very mindful that anything you do now may create a potential hole down the road."
Georgians will be able to keep track of the money on the state's stimulus Web site: stimulusaccount ability.georgia.gov. So far, however, officials have posted little information beyond an announcement that the state received the first $339.6 million in Medicaid funding last month.
Brantley said the site will feature more details as they become available.
But there will be no comprehensive listing of stimulus payments to local governments. Many will be nearly impossible to find.
For example, Georgia will get a share of $100 million for programs that feed the elderly, and that share will be divided among local agencies.
To figure out the amount, start at the main stimulus Web site: www.recovery.gov. A link promises information.
Click.
A news release pops up, with another link offering state-by-state details.
Click.
A new window materializes, asking permission to switch to another government site.
Click.
The other site appears, as does another link.
Click.
Another version of the news release comes up, with yet another link.
Click.
On the sixth Web page, a map lists each state's share. Georgia, it says, will get $2.4 million. How much will go to local agencies? No other details are listed.
CHECK'S IN THE MAIL
The federal government will send billions of dollars to Georgia during the next two years as part of the massive economic stimulus plan signed into law by President Barack Obama. Details are still emerging, but here is what is known so far about grants to the state government and to local agencies:
Transportation: $1.1 billion +
Infrastructure projects: $932 million
Public transit: $143.6 million, including $85.1 million for Atlanta's MARTA transit system
Airports: Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport is one of 17 under consideration for part of $1.1 billion for systems that detect explosives in checked bags
Social services: $474.3 million
Medicaid: $467 million to increase the federal government's share of program costs
Public health: $4.9 million for public health clinics, projected to assist 31,420 patients and create or preserve 235 jobs
Senior citizen meals: $2.4 million
Education: $2.2 billion
K-12 education funding: $1.5 billion
Title I program for schools with impoverished students: $351.3 million
Education technology: $22.1 million
Special education: $313.8 million
Special education preschool: $10.4 million
Special education for infants and families: $14.6 million
Vocational rehabilitation: $18.7 million
Independent living grants: $423,820
Services for elderly blind people: $940,207
Federal work study: $4.6 million
Housing: $267.3 million
Public housing: $112.7 million
Housing tax credits: $54.5 million
Rental assistance: $44.6 million
Homelessness prevention: $33.6 million
Community development: $21.9 million
Law enforcement: $63.1 million
State grants: $36.2 million
Local grants: $22.8 million
Stop Violence Against Women program: $4 million
Sexual assault and domestic violence coalitions: $78,125 each
Energy: $207.3 million
Weatherization projects: $124.8 million (provides as much as $6,500 for families earning as much as 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or $44,000 for a family of four)
State energy program: $82.5 million
Environment: $121.6 million
Clean water grants: $121.6 million
Unemployment benefits: $100 million
Dislocated workers: $43.8 million
Youth programs: $31.4 million
Adult programs: $13.1 million
Employment service: $11.7 million
Source: www.recovery.gov
> LOOK IT UP: Track spending from $787 billion economic stimulus program. The government's main stimulus site: www.recovery.gov For individual federal agencies' sites: www.recovery.gov/?q=content/agencies Georgia's stimulus site: stimulusaccountability.georgia.gov For information on stimulus funding for transportation: www.dot.state.ga.us/informationcenter/programs/transportation/gastimulus
Copyright 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution