Back in the days when we evaluated governments for a now-defunct business magazine called Financial World, we often found ourselves explaining that our interest was in government and not politics. We could tell you about performance measurement systems, accumulated deficits and levels of deferred maintenance for scores of states, counties and cities; but we were kind of proud of the fact that we could not say for certain which governors were Republicans and which were Democrats.

It turns out, however, that in covering the Recovery Act, it’s just naïve to disregard the way politics – and partisan warfare – comes into play. When we did our first blog posts about the ways states were reporting Recovery Act spending, job creation and performance outcomes we didn’t consider that some states might want to downplay the impact of the federal dollars.

For example, in a couple of posts about the Good Jobs First evaluation of state stimulus websites, we assumed that those at the bottom must simply lack the management and technical resources necessary to create a better site. But last week, an editorial in the Roanoke Times & World News, made us wonder how many governors might have purposefully downplayed., or even muted, their Recovery Act performance reporting efforts.

 The editorial noted that while former Democratic Gov. Tim Kaine had “made sure that Virginians could find out about stimulus spending on a comprehensive website,” new Republican Gov. Robert  McDonnell had stopped updating it.

 As the editorial says:

“It would have been neither difficult nor expensive to continue updating the old site. At least the current administration finally unveiled its own site (arra.virginia.gov), though without any fanfare. It has the sterile charm of an operating room. Technical terms and descriptions prevail.

“What explains McDonnell's dawdling is partisan politics. Kaine, a Democrat, supported the act. McDonnell, a Republican, opposed it. He and his party see no political gain in letting people know that the recovery act they fought against is providing concrete results.”

Is the Roanoke Times and News definitely right? We can’t say for sure. But it certainly has the ring of truth. Over the years Virginia has been a standout state in performance measurement and reporting. You’d never come to that conclusion looking at the ARRA website today. Compare Virginia's stimulus website  to its neighbors to the North and South – Maryland and North Carolina – and you’ll see what we mean.

1 comments

From an "insider" in state similar to VA, I can assure you that this is absolutely true. (No identifying information posted, even if you can capture it, please.)

08/04/2010 - 15:59

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