CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As Gov. Joe Manchin runs for the U.S. Senate, legislators are escalating their efforts to find out how his administration plans to spend federal stimulus dollars.
"It has become a time-sensitive thing," House of Delegates Majority Leader Brent Boggs said Tuesday. "Should the governor move on to other endeavors, we need that information. It would be very difficult for the person who's acting governor to come in and find all the necessary information."
Since early 2009, the Obama administration has awarded $2.3 billion in stimulus money to West Virginia. The Manchin administration is responsible for spending $1.05 billion of it.
Last week, Manchin officials said that although they have spent only 40 percent of the dollars under their control, they have obligated 97 percent.
"Obligated" means the work is under contract, Manchin policy chief Jim Pitrolo said.
"Then we should be able to get a list of those contracts," Nancy Guthrie, chairwoman of the House stimulus committee, said Tuesday. "We've been asking for that information since May, but they haven't given it to us.
"There's no reason for this to be cloaked in secrecy," she said. "They're using the money for many fine projects, from all I can tell. But it's gotten beyond the point where 'trust us' is a sufficient answer."
If a state does not spend its allocation by the federal deadlines, the state loses the money, she said. Deadlines begin this fall and stretch into 2015, depending on the program.
The administration has not spent more than $600 million, Guthrie noted. "If they have those dollars obligated, we need that information. Obligated to whom? How much? Which counties?"
Today, the legislative leadership will ask Jim Pitrolo, Manchin's policy chief, to provide details, Boggs said. Pitrolo will attend the meeting of the Joint Committee on Government and Finance, which includes the House Speaker, Senate President, and heads of major committees.
Legislators in other states received that information months ago, Michael Bird, federal affairs counsel for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Tuesday.
"In states I know about, where the legislature is really active, that information is out there for everybody to see," Bird said. "There's no benefit to hiding this stuff."
By June, only one other state -- Alaska -- had spent its stimulus dollars more slowly than West Virginia had, according to a report released last week by Federal Funds Information for States in Washington, D.C.
Bird said slowness is not necessarily a problem if a state has solid plans for its unspent dollars. Some projects -- like West Virginia's statewide broadband project -- require extensive planning, he said. "So it depends on the program deadlines and the plans for spending the money."
Many West Virginia projects require considerable preparation: sewer, water and highways projects and others. If the contracts are in order, Bird said, West Virginia may be in good position. "They have salted it away, which may mean they are sitting in good position to withstand continued economic downturns."
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- As Gov. Joe Manchin runs for the U.S. Senate, legislators are escalating their efforts to find out how his administration plans to spend federal stimulus dollars.
"It has become a time-sensitive thing," House of Delegates Majority Leader Brent Boggs said Tuesday. "Should the governor move on to other endeavors, we need that information. It would be very difficult for the person who's acting governor to come in and find all the necessary information."
Since early 2009, the Obama administration has awarded $2.3 billion in stimulus money to West Virginia. The Manchin administration is responsible for spending $1.05 billion of it.
Last week, Manchin officials said that although they have spent only 40 percent of the dollars under their control, they have obligated 97 percent.
"Obligated" means the work is under contract, Manchin policy chief Jim Pitrolo said.
"Then we should be able to get a list of those contracts," Nancy Guthrie, chairwoman of the House stimulus committee, said Tuesday. "We've been asking for that information since May, but they haven't given it to us.
"There's no reason for this to be cloaked in secrecy," she said. "They're using the money for many fine projects, from all I can tell. But it's gotten beyond the point where 'trust us' is a sufficient answer."
If a state does not spend its allocation by the federal deadlines, the state loses the money, she said. Deadlines begin this fall and stretch into 2015, depending on the program.
The administration has not spent more than $600 million, Guthrie noted. "If they have those dollars obligated, we need that information. Obligated to whom? How much? Which counties?"
Today, the legislative leadership will ask Jim Pitrolo, Manchin's policy chief, to provide details, Boggs said. Pitrolo will attend the meeting of the Joint Committee on Government and Finance, which includes the House Speaker, Senate President, and heads of major committees.
Legislators in other states received that information months ago, Michael Bird, federal affairs counsel for the National Conference of State Legislatures, said Tuesday.
"In states I know about, where the legislature is really active, that information is out there for everybody to see," Bird said. "There's no benefit to hiding this stuff."
By June, only one other state -- Alaska -- had spent its stimulus dollars more slowly than West Virginia had, according to a report released last week by Federal Funds Information for States in Washington, D.C.
Bird said slowness is not necessarily a problem if a state has solid plans for its unspent dollars. Some projects -- like West Virginia's statewide broadband project -- require extensive planning, he said. "So it depends on the program deadlines and the plans for spending the money."
Many West Virginia projects require considerable preparation: sewer, water and highways projects and others. If the contracts are in order, Bird said, West Virginia may be in good position. "They have salted it away, which may mean they are sitting in good position to withstand continued economic downturns."
On Monday, the Gazette asked Pitrolo for a list of contracts for unspent dollars. "It would be difficult to assemble," he said, because each agency keeps its own information. "We're working on it," he said.
Among legislators, he said, only "one young lady" has been asking for that information, referring to Guthrie.
"Nancy Guthrie has been asking very reasonable questions on behalf of many, many people both inside and outside state government," Boggs said Tuesday. "We're talking about an unprecedented amount of funding. People want to know where it's going and who is receiving the contracts."
"This should not be difficult information to track down," Guthrie said Tuesday. "They have announced what percent of each agency's funds are obligated, but have not said what those obligations are. Presumably, people had to meet certain criteria to get those obligations. So it should be a matter of record."
Pitrolo said Monday that the Manchin administration's stimulus website, www.recoverywv.gov, contains much of the information legislators want.
"I've been on the website, and unless I'm missing it, I can't find any contracts," Boggs said. "I can't find the future obligations. I think that's the question everyone is asking."
The county-by-county listings are also not accurate, Guthrie said. The site lumps hundreds of millions under Kanawha County that will actually go to many counties.
In earlier reports, Guthrie said, the administration has inflated the stimulus dollars spent. "They lumped in West Virginia's extra Medicaid dollars, which doubles the amount," she said. The extra Medicaid dollars are not the administration's responsibility to allocate, she said.
Last week, stimulus coordinator Danny Scalise told the Gazette the administration had spent $786 million of its stimulus money by the end of July. That figure includes about $350 million in Medicaid dollars, he said.
Boggs said he hopes the administration will set questions to rest. "If everything's in motion for the money to be spent, that's fine, but we need to know where and when and who's going to be handling it."
Beyond the $1.05 billion controlled by the Manchin administration, another $1.3 billion was awarded to West Virginia county and local government and non-profits. The governor and Legislature do not control those dollars. By early June, according to FFIS, 43 percent had been spent.
Reach Kate Long at katel...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1798.
