StimulusWatch.org launched today

[Jerry Brito]

Friends,

Some volunteer developers and I have today launched a site to
chronicle and rate the thousands of "shovel-ready" projects that will
soon be eligible for stimulus funds through CDBG grants,
transportation grants, etc. The site is called StimulusWatch.org and
its success will depend on how many citizens engage to describe, rate,
and comment on the projects. You are the leaders of the effort to keep
government spending accountable, so we need your help getting the word
out about the site.

Stimulus Watch is based on the U.S. Conference of Mayors' catalog of
projects. The mayors' report was issued to give Congress an estimate
of how much it should appropriate for the various federal programs
that will in turn disburse the funds to localities. The mayors asked
for a lot ($26 billion for CDBG, for example) but Congress is not
going to give them that much (they're only setting aside an extra $1
billion for CDBG).

The question now is, which of the mayors' proposed 10,000+ projects
will the Obama agencies fund? Which are the critical ones? Although
funding decisions are often done by formula, President Obama has
promised to invest the stimulus money wisely, and not on projects with
a low return. That is where our site comes in. It will gather local
knowledge about these projects and will help keep the administration
accountable about which projects they fund. Once funded I hope the
site can keep local officials accountable on spending the money.

Citizens can use the site to easily find their localities and projects
with which they may be familiar. They can also search by keyword. For
example, here is a list of projects related to golf:

http://www.stimuluswatch.org/project/search/golf

So please help us with the initial launch of the site by using it:
please edit the project wikis, add comments, and certainly vote on the
projects. And please send this to your lists, blog it, and tell all of
your friends. Thanks so much!

Sincerely,

Jerry Brito
Senior Research Fellow
Mercatus Center at George Mason University
gbr...@gmu.edu