New York, NY –
As of Wednesday, all three statewide elected officials have websites that help track stimulus funding, but none make New York's stimulus spending completely transparent. WNYC's Andrea Bernstein has more.
The newest addition to the transparency canon comes from Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, whose www.openbooknewyork.com site allows users to track stimulus spending down to the name of the contractor -- but there's a hitch, where money passes through local goverments -- and billions of dollars do -- the money trail stops at the name of the city or county. Governor Paterson's site, www.recovery.ny.gov/, gives a visual map of projects, but provides less information on contract details. And Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's www.sunlightny.com gives lots of data on campaign contributions, lobbying, and contracts, but doesn't specifically tag stimulus spending. And there's one more website for those seeking data. Mayor Bloomberg's site, called NYCStat. Many of the sites still have sparse information -- while a great deal of stimulus funding has been allocated, only a fraction has been actually contracted out.
For WNYC I'm Andrea Bernstein.
Award–winning journalist Andrea Bernstein is the Director of the public radio Transportation Nation project, a partnership with WNYC, The Takeaway, Marketplace, WAMU (Washington, DC), WMFE (Orlando), KUHF (Houston), YPR (Montana and Wyoming), and KALW (San Francisco). She is also a regular guest–host on the Brian Lehrer show.
Leave a Comment
Register for your own account so you can vote on comments, save your favorites, and more. Learn more.
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. We reserve the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the Comment Guidelines before posting. By leaving a comment, you agree to New York Public Radio's Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use.