Very interesting.

In general I can report (and I am a writer for a weekly paper in Maryland as well as, of course, a transparency-obsessed citizen) that the reaction of our State Highway Admin press office to requests has been professional, but it seems they have as much trouble connecting the “DOTS” between a stimulus amount and a state contract as the general public has.

Maryland StateStat earns props as its people have been eager to listen and discuss feedback about the function of its interactive map, and the accuracy of the underlying data (in general, dollar data not at all good as far as I have been able to determine, and that problem is not necessarily StatStat’s since each state agency passing along stimulus dollars is responsible for passing information to the StateStat people).

They have implemented some suggestions, including a change log, very quickly. For the map, see http://www.mdimap.com/statestat2/

Note: I have had difficulties with the Flash portion of the map failing to load, and so have people in the StateStat office. Don’t be discouraged.

We still have an SHA mystery about a stimulus contract on Route 301 which was bid out at $97,000. StateStat’s data seems to indicate the $230,000 SHA estimate, associated with the contract documents, was credited in full to two adjacent counties, and SHA’s press people added $60,000 to that for a third county. That implies an estimate of $20,000 per mile for the work. With 40 miles total, that’s $800,000.

Down the rabbit hole on this one.

Now $800,000 is ridiculous for the project—eradicating nonnative species and replanting with native species, a wonderful and much needed improvement along this four-lane divided highway—but a $520,000 stimulus allocation is not credible given the facts (and contradicts the state’s own, presumably legally required to be reasonable, bid documents).

Maryland Department of the Environment’s stimulus data, reflected on charts it makes available to the public and also via StateStat, is hopelessly out of date.

It was possible, within 7 days, to have two incorrectly geocoded project markers moved by MDE. One was in the wrong county. Another was for an “erosion control project” on the Chesapeake Bay shoreline. MDE placed that marker 6 miles inland.

Not only are their amounts wrong, but they haven’t even assigned names to projects that users can understand. “Water Quality Project 78” doesn’t cut it.

What is not clear is how much StateStat can demand of these agencies. I have been told that MDE has been told to remove stimulus allocation amounts that towns and counties have refused for one reason or another.

My estimate is that 20 percent of the total MDE stimulus funding posted on the map, before any of the promised changes happen, is not allocated where MDE says it is.

That would make, on average, each county’s claimed stimulus funding inflated.

Statewide, MDE has $119,216,600 “allocated.” So 20 percent of that is quite a hunk of pie—$24 million that MDE has recaptured without removingthe amounts from the totals it has been presenting.