Georgia’s stimulus bonanza
From GONSO’s Jeanne Bonner:
Georgia expects to receive $7.3 billion in federal stimulus funds, or about $1 billion more than has been previously reported.
The state provided the estimate to the General Accounting Office, which reported it Thursday as part of a review of funds issued through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
State officials said as recently as last week that they did not have a figure but had been told by federal officials that they would receive about $6 billion. Bert Brantley, a spokesman for Gov. Sonny Perdue, said Thursday that the state and the GAO developed the new estimate jointly after reviewing Georgia’s programs and looking at increases in the number of citizens who are seeking assistance such as Medicaid.
He said the new estimate still may be revised in the future, but is more accurate than the original figure.
The federal report, the first in a series of bimonthly reports, reiterated information the state has already reported but also provided detail into how the state will account for the money and expected difficulties in tracking the funds.
Much of the money will be allocated to existing programs such as Medicare and education. Of the $7.3 billion Georgia will receive in stimulus funds, the majority will go to support education (36 percent of the funds), health programs (35 percent, of which 23 percent is earmarked for Medicaid) and transportation (15 percent), according to Thursday’s report.
Georgia is one of 16 states that will be included in the bimonthly reviews. The 16 states, including Florida, North Carolina, Iowa and Mississippi, and the District of Columbia, were selected for special review because they are home to 65 percent of the nation’s population and will receive about two-thirds of the stimulus funds. The GAO said Thursday it also took into consideration unemployment rates and poverty levels in singling out the 16 states.
As of this month, the federal government has provided $521 million in increased Medicare and Medicaid funding to Georgia, of which the state has already drawn down about 60 percent, the GAO report said.
Georgia was quick to establish a team of state officials to oversee stimulus funds, acting even before the bill passed, GAO officials said. The Recovery Act implementation team includes officials from 31 state agencies.
But the state has also said some of the agencies that will receive funds have a history of accounting discrepancies, and as such, Georgia may have trouble tracking stimulus funds. For example, the report cited the state’s most recent Single Audit Act, which found the state Department of Transportation’s accounting system was “unsuitable for day-to-day management.”
The U.S. Department of Transportation allotted $932 million in highway infrastructure spending to Georgia in March as part of the stimulus. Perdue won’t release the money until he has certified the projects. Earlier this month, he announced he had given the requisite approval for $207 million in stimulus funding, which will be distributed to 67 road projects throughout the state, including $24 million for a Gwinnett County project that will extend McGinnis Ferry Road.
The report also said state auditors had found the state Department of Labor was unable “to provide detailed account balances for the Unemployment Insurance because it maintained an inadequate general ledger that consisted of manually updated spreadsheets.”
In an effort to avoid accounting problems with stimulus funds, the state has issued a directive to state agencies that they track stimulus funds separately from other funds.
In addition to GAO staff here and in Washington, D.C., the federal agency’s liaison in Georgia is Celeste Osborn, the state’s deputy chief financial officer. Osborn will coordinate stimulus activities for all state agencies.
Perdue will sign a certification document for every program that receives stimulus funding, which will guarantee the state spends the funds appropriately, Brantley said last week. Osborn will ensure those certifications are signed in time, and will coordinate with the agencies to develop plans to spend the funds in a manner consistent with the certifications, he said.
Perdue has elected to save half of the so-called stabilization funds that are part of the stimulus in order to apply it to the 2011 budget, state officials said last week. Those funds will offset anticipated cuts in education and other areas.
The report issued Thursday coincided with testimony to Congress, said Alicia Cackley of the GAO, who helped write the report. Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act earlier this year at Pres. Obama’s urging in an effort to bolster the economy in the wake of the recession.
To find the report the GAO issued Thursday, visit:
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d09580.pdf
For an overview of stimulus money in Georgia, go here:
http://stimulusaccountability.ga.gov/02/gov/stimulus/home/0,2804,134245182,00.html
For information on stimulus money for Georgia housing programs, go here:
http://www.hud.gov/offices/pih/programs/ph/capfund/grants/arra/ga.cfm
For information on transportation and aviation projects in Georgia that will receive stimulus funding, visit:
http://www.dot.state.ga.us/informationcenter/gastimulus/Pages/default.aspx
General information on the stimulus act is available here:
Jeanne Bonner is the senior business writer at Georgia Online News Service.
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