Stimulus site just a bit off

We’ll never know if the constituents of New Hampshire’s 27th Congressional District are displeased that it took $124,774 in stimulus funding to create two jobs in their region.

That’s because a 27th district doesn’t exist. New Hampshire also doesn’t have a “00” Congressional District or a 4th or a 6th, for that matter.

Apparently, no one told that to the people powering Recovery.gov, the federal government Web site that tracks the use of stimulus dollars.

The Web site mistakenly redrew the congressional representation map of New Hampshire and several other states, creating districts where there are none and giving them stimulus money.

In a territorial breakdown of stimulus spending, Recovery.gov had added four districts to New Hampshire’s two districts, the 1st and 2nd. After increasing publicity, the errors were removed from New Hampshire’s page Wednesday afternoon.

Recovery.gov says New Hampshire has received $695,501,517 in stimulus money, an estimate that’s about half-way between what the state has received and what the government has given directly to Granite State recipients.

According to those tracking stimulus dollars in Concord, the state had committed more than $400 million to various projects or programs as of Oct. 7. That doesn’t include money going directly from the federal government to colleges, private businesses and the like, which totaled another $550 million as of Oct. 14.

Also, through September, 3,007 full-time jobs were created or saved with stimulus money, according to a report released last month by Orville “Bud” Fitch, director of the governor’s Office of Economic Stimulus.

Recovery.gov offered its own slant on job creation in the Granite State.

Two of the districts erroneously created by the Web site saw five new jobs and $2.6 million in spending. The “00” district gained 2,873.9 jobs.

The phantom districts were first reported this week by Watchdog.org, a collaborative of independent journalists that is sponsored by the Franklin Center for Government & Public Integrity.

Watchdog.org found that Recovery.gov had fashioned 440 congressional districts out of thin air, and those districts had spent $6.4 billion and created or saved nearly 30,000 jobs.

The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which runs Recovery.gov, told the Montana Policy Institute that the bad information was caused by stimulus recipients who filed reports on what they’ve done with the money.

“People make errors, and we’ve found people are making errors in these reports,” RATB Director of Communications Ed Pound told the Montana Policy Institute.

Recovery.gov is accurately reporting the information that recipients provide, Pound added. Unless there is a glaring error, Recovery.gov posts the information as is, he said.

“Our job is data integrity, not data quality,” he said.

The manager of the Granite State’s office of economic stimulus, Sergio Gonzalez, told Foster’s Daily Democrat that money attributed as going to New Hampshire’s “00” District are for programs that have in fact run statewide.

Gonzalez said the errors occurred in places where 256 contractors, organizations, schools, municipalities and others received funding directly from the federal government, according to Foster’s. That accounts for 21 percent, or $146.8 million, of the money that’s flowed into the state.

The remaining 79 percent, or $546.4 million, went to the state office, where an extensive review takes place, Gonzalez told Foster’s.

The errors have already added fuel to the fire of stimulus package critics. Opponents of the measure say that not enough jobs have been created or saved, and that money has gone to unnecessary programs.

The state Republican Party on Tuesday faulted Democrats Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter, New Hampshire’s two congressional representatives, for supporting a stimulus package that has so far failed to deliver 16,000 jobs to New Hampshire, as the White House promised.

“The people of the ‘00th’’ Congressional District can be proud of their Member of Congress for creating so many jobs,” state Republican Party Communications Director Ryan Williams said in a press release.

Hodes told Foster’s the bogus districts were “a serious mistake and an example of sloppy record-keeping” by the White House. Taxpayers need clear answers on the stimulus package, he said.

And Shea-Porter said the errors came to light because of the government’s accountability and transparency.

Albert McKeon can be reached at 594-5832 or amckeon@nashuatelegraph.com.