New York, NY –
All three of New York's statewide elected officials have websites that help track federal stimulus funds, but as WNYC's Andrea Bernstein reports, none make New York's stimulus spending completely transparent.
REPORTER: The newest addition to the transparency canon comes from Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, whose openbook.ny 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, recovery.ny.gov, gives a visual map of projects, but provides less information on contract details. And Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's sunlightny.com gives lots of data on campaign contributions, lobbying, and contracts, but doesn't specifically tag stimulus spending.
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.
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