The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is one of the most comprehensive and complex pieces of legislation to have ever been signed into law. Its sheer size – $787 billion – and volume have made it one of the most difficult bills to interpret and understand…possibly ever.

Because of this, transparency and accountability – particularly at the state level – have become infinitely more important. Taxpayers need to be able to follow the money trail and understand where their tax dollars are being spent.

That’s why TexasBudgetSource is so proud to help shine a light on the stimulus package as it applies to Texas – and the state certainly needs better transparency and accountability with the huge amount of federal dollars headed this way.

Of the total federal funds available, about $16 billion is directed at Texas, according to the Legislative Budget Board. The funds are divided into eight broad categories:

• Health and Human Services: $4.7 billion
• State Fiscal Stabilization Funds: $4 billion
• Education: $2.3 billion
• Transportation: $2.7 billion
• Labor: $1 billion
• Criminal Justice: $169.3 million
• Housing and Infrastructure: $1.1 billion
• Homeland Security: N/A

Keeping track of these federal dollars is one of our highest priorities at TexasBudgetSource. With features like the portals below it’s our goal to help keep track of every last dime.

Public Transparency Initiatives:

	The Obama administration created recovery.gov to provide information on how the federal government was spending Stimulus money. The goal of recovery.org is to educate citizens about the effort and demonstrate how, when, and where the money is spent.
	Window on State Government – Tracking the Texas Stimulus: Texas Comptroller Susan Combs provides information tracking the spending from stimulus bill money in Texas. Her goal is to bring transparency and accountability to the process.
	View the impact that the stimulus will have on the Texas state budget in this report by the Legislative Budget Board.

Private Transparency Initiatives:

	Texas Stimulus Fund: State Representative Jim Dunnam, Chair of the House Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding, owns and operates a private website to track the $15.3 billion in stimulus funds headed for Texas. The site features information on related committee hearings, updates on the stimulus package, and other background material.
	The Bailout Sleuth, a Web site started by the wealthy owner of the Dallas Mavericks Mark Cuban, keeps an eye on stimulus spending, tracking the money spent by the government and reporting it in their frequently updated blog.