Blog, December 2021

We can make New Year’s Resolutions for other people, right? Because I’m about to make some for the good people across the country who will continue spending about $500 billion in CARES Act and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money, well into 2022.

Most states are failing to provide a full and complete picture of how they have been spending billions of dollars in assistance provided by Congress to help their residents recover from the financial burdens caused by COVID-19 pandemic. Just six states do it well, while eight states and the District of Columbia fail to disclose any meaningful information online. These are among the findings from a Good Jobs First review of the online disclosure practices of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, as they have spent a combined $111.8 billion from the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF).

Despite a self-congratulatory blog by New York Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, the state’s COVID-19 Relief Program Tracker fails Good Jobs First’s transparency test.