As reported by Government Technology:

Arizona just launched a new Web site, Arizona’s Openness and Saving Strategies Project.  From the site:

These are tight times, and Arizona’s budget is no exception. That’s why we need to find every good idea we can, and put those ideas to work to help state government agencies save money. This site contains news about Arizona’s budget, as well as examples of savings strategies that have already been implemented in Arizona and are working now. State employees can also use this site to find cost-saving measures in use at other agencies. Just as importantly, you will find ways to Submit Your Own Ideas to help our state cut back even further.

This new project opens up the buget process so state agencies can collaborate with each other and citizens can share their ideas for saving money with officals.  It also has budget related news and gives information on how the state budget is produced.

With this project Arizona is really exploring new ways to deal with its budget deficit.  Not to mention that inviting the community at large to participate in fixing their state financial problems empowers citizens to really invest in their state and not just hope politicians will fix it.   I wish Congress would think about more ways like this to involve the wisdom of the masses to help solve problems.  It would be very democratic of them.

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Department of Agriculture efforts intended to create jobs in rural areas, including the Rural Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program, haven’t quite worked as planned:

Funds have gone to firms that have hired foreign workers instead of Americans. Millions more have gone to failing and bankrupt businesses. Most of the jobs are not new. Many are low-tech and low-wage.

In addition to the loan program, the USDA has handed out almost half a billion dollars in rural development grants to businesses and nonprofits since 2001.

Loan guarantees or grants have gone to a car wash in Milford, Del.; a country club in Great Falls, Mont.; a movie theater in Smithfield, N.C.; a water park in Myrtle Beach, S.C.; an alligator hunter in Dade City, Fla.; snowmobile clubs in Maine; and dozens of gas stations and convenience stores in Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Arkansas.

The article, written by Gilbert M. Gaul in today’s Washington Post, provides the kind of in depth examination of government spending that should be routine but sadly, rarely happens. Perhaps his most disturbing finding about the Rural Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program is this: “More than three decades after the loan program was created, USDA officials still don’t know whether it works.” Office of Management and Budget assessed the program in 2003, at which time USDA disclosed that, “No independent performance evaluations have been conducted to assess the program’s impact on improving economic opportunities in rural communities.” And, Gaul reports, members of Congress have other interests: making sure the money spigot stays open.

Congressional committees charged with overseeing USDA business programs rarely question the agency’s claims or probe deeply into the programs. Instead, some lawmakers have aggressively lobbied the USDA to approve costly projects in their districts.

In 1999, members of Washington state’s congressional delegation urged the USDA to guarantee a $20 million loan to a troubled sugar beet refinery near Moses Lake. The agency agreed, even though the borrower was already in default on existing loans. Within months the plant failed and defaulted on its newest loan, sticking taxpayers with a $12.1 million loss.

The article is part of the excellent Harvesting Cash series that’s dissecting Department of Agriculture programs. I wish the Post, or other papers, would take the same care to examine Commerce, HUD, Labor and HHS programs as well. And for those interested, beneficiaries of the Rural Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program from 2000 to 2006 can be found on FedSpending.org, here.

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TheBudgetGraph.com just released their 2008 poster that brilliantly shows where taxpayer dollars are spent in the Federal government. Not surprisingly, over one-third of the poster is made up of defense spending. The office/agency checking in with the lowest budget is also not surprising - the Office of Government Ethics with $12 million. See more numbers below or click through to check out the poster yourself.

Our intern Rich combed through some of these numbers and came up with some interesting finds:

If I’m not mistaken, it looks like if you’re talking about department as in "secretary of" then Commerce looks the lowest with "only" $6.467 billion.

But other small budget organizations include the National Science Foundation with 5.901 billion, the EPA with 7.200 billion, labor with 10.569 billion, treasury with 12.136 billion, and the Small Business Administration with "only" .463 billion.

You also have the Judicial Branch as a whole with just 6.720 billion and the legislative branch with 4.820 billion and those are increases.

Also the executive office of the president with .340 billion.

Interestingly the corps of engineers gets 4.871 billion which is a 3% increase which mostly goes to operation and maintenance while there
are 19% decreases in construction and 11% decreases in flood control, Mississippi River, and tributaries.

The Budget Graph shows increases and decreases in funding by percentage over the past year for each agency/office/project. The biggest loser over the last year turns out to be in the State Department; development assistance is down 67% from the previous budget to only $1.041 billion. Other agencies/offices/projects taking big hits include the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with a 25% cut, Amtrak with a 28% cut, the Community Development Fund with a 28% cut, Housing for the Elderly with a 23% cut, the Safe and Drug Free Schools program with a 38% cut, and the Economic Development Administration with a 22% cut.

Take a spin around this map of the Budget, it is fascinating to look at.

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