Updated: 11/17/2009 7:58 PM KSTP.com | Print |  Email
By: Becky Nahm & Tom Hauser

Site Shows Stimulus Spent in Phantom Districts

A web site created to track stimulus spending shows money was spent to create jobs in places that don't exist.

Government watchdog Tom Steward of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota says the misinformation on the Recovery.gov web site is astounding.

Steward said, "It's just a mess. And the bottom line is we don't know what to believe. We don't know how to track this stuff despite the claims there was going to be more transparency than ever."

The web site breaks down economic stimulus funding and job creation within 19 congressional districts in Minnesota. The problem is Minnesota only has eight congressional districts.

The districts listed are not in numerical order.

For example, the site shows 35 new jobs were created in Minnesota's 57th Congressional District at a cost of $606,956.

Minnesota also doesn't have a ninth district, a 27th district or a 22nd district. But the Recovery.gov website says $5.5 million dollars was spent in those phantom districts to create 3.3 jobs.

A spokesman for the recovery board blames states for submitting inaccurate data. But, Minnesota's Commissioner of Management and Budget Tom Hanson says that's not the case.

Hanson said the state double-checked the information and all of it was accurate.

He thinks some contractors hired to work on stimulus projects are improperly filling out reporting forms.

Hanson says he's confident the bugs will be worked out on the federal web site. But in the meantime, Minnesotans can visit the state web site Recovery.mn.