We don't want to get into the politics of the debate about road signs that advertise the use of stimulus dollars, but it does point out a significant shortcoming in government generally. That's the difficulty in coming up with good reliable figures about what things cost.

The Recovery Act is quietly influencing federal-state-local relations.  Not only is the money being used to save jobs as states and localities cut back their budgets, but the ways states and localities are choosing to use and report on the funds are creating different ways for getting “the business of government” done.

Some good news emerges from the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board's just-released quarterly report to the President and Congress. Many of the data quality problems that emerged in the first reporting period have been corrected, as illustrated in the report's table one, on page five.

Keeping up with the Government Accountability Office's reports about the Recovery Act is a pretty demanding undertaking. But we're going to try to do so on your behalf, and offer you summaries of the most important reports as they come out (as well as links to others).