W.Va. stimulus site noted

By JESS MANCINI, jmancini@newsandsentinel.com
POSTED: August 2, 2009

PARKERSBURG - The Web site on how stimulus funds are being spent in West Virginia has been cited for its effectiveness and ease of use.

Good Jobs First says West Virginia is one of six states in the country with exceptional sites according to its Show Us the Stimulus report. The states are West Virginia, Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Maryland.

West Virginia Interactive of Charleston, which is part of NIC Inc., designed the West Virginia site. West Virginia was rated fourth overall, said Pete Fairhurst, general manager of West Virginia Interactive.

"I'll take the top five any day of the week," he said.

NIC, which manages and designs the Web sites for more than 2,000 state and local agencies and governments, specializes in government Web sites, said Matt Turner, spokesman for Gov. Joe Manchin.

"They're very functional on how they do their Web sites," Turner said.

West Virginia Interactive also is redesigning the governor's Web site, he said. Fees to maintain the site are made from the charges made to do business online with the state, Fairhurst said.

"The recovery Web site didn't cost taxpayers any money whatsoever," he said.

The West Virginia stimulus site, recovery.wv.gov, is linked from several government sites including the governor's and the main portal, wv.gov. It receives about 3,000 hits a month, Fairhurst said.

It was developed through a partnership between West Virginia and West Virginia Interactive, which was created in 2007 to help state agencies with online services. West Virginia Interactive also developed the state's main site, WV.gov and is working with 20 state agencies to modernize Web sites.

The company also is developing a site for the new Judicial Reform Commission.

A message and picture of Manchin are at the top of the home page with the financial information about how the money is spent below.

A graphic on the home page breaks down how much money is being spent for health, education and transportation, the three major areas, and programs for energy, environmental, housing, workforce and public safety.

Next to the graphic is a map of West Virginia and the 55 counties where information about how stimulus funds will be spent in a county is available by clicking on the county.

For example, by clicking on Wood County, the user finds that $3.273 million will be spent on roads, such as the overpass on Wood County 25. More than $913,000 will spent at the Mid-Ohio Valley Regional Airport and the Department of Education is spending $3.3 million on Title 1 grants.

Among other findings and recommendations by the report:

The objective of the Recovery Act is job creation and retention, but only Colorado, Maryland, Washington and West Virginia provide employment data for individual projects on their main stimulus site. Eighteen states do so in highway reporting.
Ten states cite the contractor and dollar amounts.
Put a summary of key information about spending at the top of the home page.
Report on individual projects being funded.
Information on how to apply for funds and contracts should be readily accessible.
Most states are doing an inadequate job in providing stimulus information, according to Greg LeRoy, director of Good Jobs First.

"Many states are failing to support President Obama's vow that the Recovery Act will be carried out with an unprecedented level of transparency and accountability," said Good Jobs First Executive Director Greg LeRoy. "By failing to use broadly available web tools, they are making it more difficult to measure the success of the (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) in mitigating the effects of the recession."

West Virginia: State's Stimulus Web Site Among Nation's Best, Report Shows

State's stimulus Web site among nation's best, report shows

Charleston Gazette | 08.02.09
URL: http://wvgazette.com/News/politics/200908020181

West Virginia's stimulus-tracking Web site is one of the nation's best, according to a national non-profit research group.

By ALISON KNEZEVICH

[NOTE: The stimulus site discussed in the following article was developed by NIC through subsidiary West Virginia Interactive.]

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- West Virginia's stimulus-tracking Web site is one of the nation's best, according to a national non-profit research group.

The state's site ranked fourth in a new report by Good Jobs First, a Washington group that analyzed the transparency of every state's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) site.

Good Jobs First calculated the rankings by scoring states in 10 categories. www.recovery.wv.gov, West Virginia's site, received perfect scores in several areas.

For instance, the report says West Virginia's site includes good data on how many jobs stimulus projects have created. It also shows residents how the federal dollars are divided by broad categories -- such as housing, energy and transportation -- and by specific programs.

The group also gave the site a top score for centralization of information.

"We're very proud of that," said Matt Turner, spokesman for Gov. Joe Manchin. "Our agencies are keeping an eye on this.... We intend to work even harder to provide even more information."

The report also points out weaknesses in West Virginia's tracking of its $1.8 billion stimulus share.

The state received no points in four categories. Its site doesn't include data on the expected duration of projects and when they're completed; maps of where projects are taking place; and information on how funding allocations compare to each county's needs.

The report also says the site's information isn't timely enough, and could include more details on project contracts.

States' abilities to transparently track their stimulus funds have broad political implications, said policy analyst Paul Miller of the West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy.

The Democratic Governors Association has touted the rankings, issuing a news release pointing out that Democrat-led states swept the top six spots in the report.

(Two states with Democratic governors -- Kentucky and Illinois -- also tied for last place.)

The $787 billion package's ultimate impact on the nation's economy could settle long-running questions about public spending, Miller said.

"Ultimately, this is a test, a new test of the equivalent of the New Deal," Miller said. "It's actually answering the larger question of the value of public spending and public investment."

Miller commended West Virginia government for its ranking, but said officials should take it a step further by creating a similar site for the state budget. The stimulus site could serve as a template, he said.

"Why can't we do this for state dollars?" Miller asked. "This Web site may be the impetus to get us to that level of accountability."

Reach Alison Knezevich at alis...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1240.