A Washington, D.C.-based group said in a new report that Georgia is one of only six states that do a good job disclosing how they spend COVID-19 relief money.
Members of this organization, Good Jobs First, in a report they released Monday, ranked how states spend federal CARES Act money.
Georgia’s Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) landing page on the Governor’s Office of Budget and Planning website links to pages that detail local government and state agency spending, according to Good Jobs First’s report.
“Georgia is another model of CRF accessibility and transparency,” Good Jobs First said.
“It’s one of only a few states that provide detailed descriptions of their purchases in addition to the CARES Act’s required expenditure categories.”
Georgia provides a pie chart showing how much governments spent in various expense categories. Peach State officials also include columns for recipients, expense categories, subcategories, and a brief description for each entry.
“The description column in which recipients list exactly what was purchased is what separates Georgia from most of the other states,” the report said.
“Georgia’s dashboards provide descriptions of individual items purchased like masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer, and projects such as opening a clinic for residents and providing internet access for a specific behavioral health facility. The only feature that’s missing is the ability to download the data to a spreadsheet.”
Good Jobs First, according to its website, is a policy resource center that promotes corporate and government accountability in economic development.
The report said the state governments of Alabama, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, and Wyoming also did a good job disclosing how they spent COVID-19 relief money.
“At the other extreme, eight states plus the District of Columbia have not bothered to post any of this information,’ the Good Jobs First report said.
“The others have some information online, but it is poorly detailed, often hard to find, and doesn’t enable public engagement.”
The states of New York and Texas did a poor job disclosing how they spent COVID-19 relief money. Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Virginia provided no website at all, according to the report.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Georgia Capitol Building” by Autiger CC BY-SA 2.0.
