CALIFORNIA
www.recovery.ca.gov
As of October 13, 2009:
| Agency Reported Data: | | Rank: |
| Funds Announced | $26,280,300,129 | 1 |
| Funds Available | $28,689,756,851 | 1 |
| Funds Paid Out | $15,722,494,102 | 1 |
| | | |
| Recipient Reported Data: | | Rank: |
| Number of Awards | 462 | 1 |
| Funds Awarded | $1,140,160,787 | 2 |
| Funds Awarded Per Capita | $31 | 27 |
| Funds Received | $157,917,608 | 4 |
| Jobs Created / Saved | 2260 | 3 |
| Unemployment Rate | 12.2 | 4 |
Notes: All Rankings are from Highest to Lowest. For example, a ranking of 15 for “Funds Announced” means that the state had the 15th highest amount offunds announced. A ranking of 15 for the unemployment rate means that this state has the 15th highest unemployment rate.
Terms defined by http://www.recovery.gov/
Recipient Reported Data: These data are based on data submitted by federal contract recipients to www.federalreporting.gov between Oct. 1 and Oct. 10, 2009. On Oct. 30, 2009, the final recipient federal contract data and the final data on grants and loans will be available. It is collected and updated quarterly.
Agency Reported Data: These data are based on weekly Financial and Activity Reports filed by federal agencies receiving Recovery Act Funds.
Funds Announced: Funds that have been publicly announced as available to entities outside of the federal government. Not all available funds are announced publicly. For example, the funds going to a project started prior to the Recovery Act that are commingled with the project’s Recovery funds will not be announced publicly before being made available to a recipient. The Funds Announced figure should not be viewed as the total funding that an agency has made available.
Funds Available(Obligation): The term used to describe when an agency informs the public of the release of money to recipients either immediately or in the future.
Funds Awarded: This is the amount of contract dollars that will bemade available to recipients.
Funds Paid Out: Funds that have been released from a federal agency to a recipient.
Funds Received: The amount of money each recipient received from a federal award.
Recent Updates
ARRA Spending To Date
As in all other states, and arguably intrinsic to the design of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, California has only begun to infuse ARRA funds into its state economy. California projects on its state recovery website a total of $85 billion over the two years of ARRA implementation. Of that total, $30 billion is tax relief for individuals and businesses, which will take effect without further action, albeit along schedules dictated by tax law, tax years, and tax due dates. The other $55 billion will be available for grants, contracts, and reimbursements by the state government. Of this $55 billion total, the federal government has announced awards of $26.1 billion (less than half the projected total) and made available to the state $23.3 billion. The federal website Recovery.gov reports that as of mid-September, California has paid out $13.4 billion, or 57.5 percent of currently available funds. California’s payout percentage is higher than the national payout of 41.2 percent of all available ARRA funds. Education represents the largest portion of paid out ARRA funds, with health and human services the second largest funding area (see chart).
In billions of dollars, of $13.4 billion total Source: www.recovery.gov, accessed on 9/17/09
ARRA Helps to Close State Budget Gap.
The California Budget Project reports that ARRA funds closed 19 percent of the budget gap for FY 2010. Presumably without the availability of stimulus funds additional cuts of nearly $8 billion would have been necessary.
Jobs
Jobs figures are due to be reported to the federal government in October. Federal officials estimated that 396,000 jobs would be created or saved in California at the time of ARRA passage. The state recovery website does not present any jobs information at this time. Only limited anecdotal reports in the media and estimates of jobs tied to certain funding exist.
Transparency
In April, Gov. Schwarzenegger appointed an Inspector General for recovery funds. Laura Chick’s mission is to deter, detect, and disclose any fraud, waste or abuse of ARRA dollars. On Sept. 8th, the Inspector General sent a letter to the Governor urging that he require agencies to post all program reviews, monitoring and accountability reports, evaluations, inspections, assessments and studies once they are finalized, not just formal audits currently posted.
State Actively Competing for ARRA Fund
Several recent events demonstrate the importance of ARRA funds to California, the world’s 8th largest economy.
On September 23, the state will finalize a listing of high-speed rail projects it wants funded from a pool of $8 billion ARRA funds. The state is reported to be requesting between $4 and $5 billion, at least half the national pool. California voters have already approved a bond measure that guarantees public funding for the rest of the cost. Twenty state legislators travelled to DC in mid September to make the state’s case, according to the Press Enterprise.
A recent story in the Mercury News quotes a California economist projecting that the Bay Area and Silicon Valley will outperform the U.S. economy over the next year, and continuing to do so over the next five years, in part because of the infusion of stimulus funds for green technology, propulsion technology and medical technology.
The Governor has called on the legislature, in a special session slated to end Oct. 6, to remove the current “firewall” between student test scores and teacher performance evaluations so that California can compete for a portion of the $4.35 billion in “Race to the Top” dollars available through the federal ARRA.
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