Goals for federal economic stimulus bill clear
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"We were told in D.C. that there would be much more guidance by the end of this month or the start of next month."
Some timelines for dissemination of funding are outlined in the bill itself. Hubert said federal officials will be watching to make sure that states track the funding to ensure the money goes where it is supposed to go, as laid out in the bill.
The funding for existing programs that operate under pre-existing rules and regulations will "work faster and come sooner," said Hubert, while agencies starting from scratch to promulgate rules and regulations will mean a longer wait for that funding to flow.
"We anticipate a great deal of the money will be flowing through the state treasury and through our (comptroller's office) system," said Hubert. Like other states and other governmental entities, the comptroller's office is already putting together departments to track the stimulus money and is likely to need additional personnel once the money starts flowing.
"The flow of the money and its tracking will be harder for some states to deal with than others. Some other states have had a couple of years of downsizing their state government. So they will have to be sure there is sufficient administrative funding as well. You have to have the resources to do that right and it will be harder for some states than for others."
Both the president and vice president stressed the "importance of this effort and called it a great opportunity for the states and something that had never been done before," said Hubert. He added that both also stressed the importance of accountability, transparency and efficiency.
The deputy comptroller said the most recent figure he's seen regarding the total amount of funding coming to Texas is $15 to $16 billion. "They're sending out some pretty big tranches now," he said, pointing as an example to the $1.2 billion flowing to the Texas Department of Transportation, which has already been allocated among 29 transportation projects throughout the state, and millions for health and human services programs. Hubert said other larger pieces of the funding should be coming out within 90-180 days. But some of the funding is to be spread out over a two-year period.
Representatives of major federal agencies responsible for disseminating the $787 billion in stimulus funds - the U.S. Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy, the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Justice, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Labor - were on hand to discuss what information they had on the funding and to offer information on when some of the funds can be expected in the states.
A question and answer session followed the presentation by representatives of each agency, said Hubert. "They gave more specifics to the degree they had them. Some were more specific than others, but there are still a lot of questions and details yet to come."
The comptroller already has set up a Web site for tracking the stimulus funds but Hubert said once the funds start flowing, the agency will "ramp up" to make sure that all information necessary to ensure that the process is transparent will be available. The agency's goal is to make the Web site searchable, like its popular online check registry that allows the public to see where agencies are spending taxpayer dollars.
So for the time being, state agencies, governmental entities and vendors are adopting a "wait and see" attitude. Hubert suggests vendors should read the bill to find out where the money is going to be spent, which agencies it will flow through and on what it will be spent. Frequent checks of Web sites of federal agencies involved in distributing the stimulus funds is another way to keep up with the funding, he said.
But there are still a lot of unknowns, said the deputy comptroller. "There are a lot of questions and not a lot of answers at this point."
