April 27th, 2009

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that in just two months Pennsylvania is well on its way to allotting the $9.4 billion in stimulus funds. 

Gov. Rendell has said stimulus money must be spent “as wisely, as effectively, and as quickly as possible.”

The question is: Can those goals be reached together? Can the spending be both careful and quick?

Republicans have called for greater legislative input into decisions, and state Auditor General Jack Wagner, a Democrat, has written a letter to the U.S. Government Accountability Office questioning whether the state has effective management control, even now, over some longtime federal-state programs.

But James P. Creedon, installed by Rendell as “implementation officer” for the stimulus program, said the stimulus money would be spent scrupulously.

“It’s a huge amount of money for the people of Pennsylvania,” he said last week.

One big reason the money will be spent efficiently, Creedon said, is that the state is not setting up new programs to manage it. The money will pass through existing channels for federal aid to the state.

****

The only new government creation is the Stimulus Oversight Commission, set up by Rendell to provide “transparency” and “accountability” in the spending of the stimulus money. The governor named Ronald J. Naples, a former corporate executive from Wynnewood, as chief accountability office…

…The commission includes Republican and Democratic members from both houses of the legislature, as well as a representative of labor and a representative of business.

Rep. Brian Ellis (R., Butler) complained that, at its first full meeting on Thursday, the commission was told of decisions only after the governor’s staff had made them.

“Basically, we’re just going in there and getting a report on how they spent the money,” Ellis said. “We haven’t had any input. We need oversight, not hindsight.”