Washington — Washington -President Barack Obama says unprecedented transparency will be a hallmark of his presidency. But following the money in the stimulus package might not be as easy as he suggests.
Almost daily, state and federal officials proclaim their commitment to openness. Just yesterday, in conjunction with a day-long White House conference that dealt largely with that subject, Gov. Martin O'Malley expressed his determination to help Maryland citizens track federal stimulus dollars with "accountability, transparency and efficiency."
Many of the most important spending decisions aren't being made in Washington. They're getting thrashed out at state and local levels, where accountability is a wild card and there's no guarantee that taxpayers will get the dollar-by-dollar information that Obama is promising.
In some cases, money that goes to a local government may be impossible to follow under current White House guidelines, say open-government advocates.
"It could go to the mayor's brother-in-law. We don't know," said Craig Jennings of OMB Watch in Washington.
It is up to the states, for example, to decide how to divvy up the $28 billion for "shovel-ready" highway projects.
In Maryland, none of the funding that will flow to subcontractors on highway projects will be disclosed, said David Buck, a State Highway Administration spokesman. The state also doesn't provide detailed information about the location of most resurfacing projects, which will account for the largest single share of highway spending under the stimulus plan.
Under the Obama administration's transparency guidelines, "the money disappears after it changes hands twice," said Greg LeRoy of Good Jobs First, a liberal watchdog group that wants more complete disclosure.
As things stand, the federal government will disclose how much money it gives to a state, and the state must report back on how that money is distributed to a private company, or to a local government. Beyond that point, there is no requirement for disclosing where the money finally ends up, he said.
LeRoy's group is part of the Coalition for an Accountable Recovery, which has warned that there could be "corruption on a massive scale," as stimulus and financial bailout funds are spent.
The "only antidote is millions of eyeballs watching the money," LeRoy said, referring to ordinary citizens tracking the spending on government Web sites.
