Stimulating conversation

Stimulus is everywhere – from City Hall to the State Capitol to the boardroom to the ‘Net. Gov. Tim Kaine today announced the launch of an overhauled Stimulus.Virginia.Gov web portal into the ins and outs regarding the money being invested in Virginia from the $700 billion-plus American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Virginia is getting just short of $5 billion from the stimulus package, not including tax cuts for individual taxpayers and funds that could end up flowing into the state from competitive grants that have yet to be awarded at the federal level to local and state governments, school systems, nonprofits and private companies.

“In Virginia—just as in other states across the country—we’ve made transparency and accountability a core part of our program to implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” Kaine said. “As we work to build a stronger economic future for Virginia, the redesigned Stimulus.Virginia.Gov will be a central tool to ensure Virginians can see where funds are being used and how the recovery plan is working in our state.”

The Stimulus.Virginia.Gov site will provide information on how stimulus funds are being used, descriptions and status reports on stimulus projects, estimates of jobs saved or created by stimulus-related activities and estimates of tax increases averted because of the infusion of funds into the economy.

“As we begin to allocate Recovery Act funds it is important that citizens are kept informed about how their money is being used. That’s why we launched our website last month and why we’re making it a priority to continue to be transparent and accountable moving forward,” Kaine said. “We all have a stake in our financial future and we will make sure that all Virginians will be able to track how well we’re doing.”

The state has already committed about a third of its stimulus monies – with $1 billion directed to K-12 and special education, $694 million going to transportation-infrastructure projects and $40 million going to public-safety grants to localities.

– Story by Chris Graham