New capital projects, such as school and hospital construction, transportation infrastructure, and water and sewer upgrades, are being funded by Build America Bonds, a financing tool that allows state and local governments to borrow money at lower costs.

In a recent update on the progress of these bonds created by the Recovery Act, the Department of the Treasury noted that since the program’s launch on April 3, 2009 and February 28, 2010:

• There have been $78 billion in Build America Bond issuances
• There have been a total of 929 separate issues of Build American Bonds by local or state governments in 47 states; and
• Build America Bonds now constitute about 20% of the municipal bonds market.

To see a state-by-state breakdown, read Build America Bonds Update   

Source: Department of the Treasury

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Left: Older track components are removed to make way for the new as part of the Chicago Transit Authority’s Dearborn Subway Track Renewal project.  39,000 feet of track were replaced according to CTA. (Photos courtesy of CTA)

The city’s Blue Line Dearborn Subway had been plagued by “slow zones”— sections  of track beyond normal service life that required train speeds to be sharply restricted in these areas, in some cases down to as little as 6 mph.  Replacing seven miles of track in these slow zones has significantly improved travel time and safety on this major commuter line.

The $88 million track replacement project began in April 2009 and was carried out in three phases by Kiewit-Reyes, a joint-venture between two major contractors, the Reyes Group and Kiewit Western Co. In the first two phases, 20,000 feet of track was replaced between the Division Street and Grand Street stations. The final phase focused on refurbishing 19,000 feet of track between Clark/Lake Street and UIC-Halsted Street stations. All work was completed at the end of 2009, allowing trains to resume normal speeds of up to 55 mph.

Prior to the Recovery award, funding constraints had severely limited track maintenance and repair, CTA President Richard L. Rodriguez said.  “The replacement of track and rail ties in the Dearborn subway as a result of the stimulus program has allowed trains to resume normal speeds and prevent emerging slow zones in the future.” Rodriguez added, “Riders are traveling faster and more comfortably as the track replacement creates a smoother ride."

Kiewit-Reyes hired six subcontractors for various aspects of the project, including electrical work, trucking, materials, supplies, and track testing.

More projects in Illinois

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The Office of Tax Analysis estimates that $99.1 billion in tax relief was made available by the end of December 2009. This relief comes in various forms including the Making Work Pay tax credit, COBRA Continuation Coverage Assistance, and tax incentives for businesses.

Data Source: Office of Tax Analysis Estimates
Note: December cumulative figures include adjustments to prior quarter’s estimates
Note: Detail may not sum to totals due to independent rounding

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To promote accountability and transparency on the use of Recovery Act funds, the Recovery Board worked with federal Inspectors General to establish a multi-phased approach for reviewing agency oversight of recipient data.  The first phase, conducted before the start of the first recipient reporting cycle in October, 2009, provided a snapshot of federal agencies’ data-review processes. The second phase, conducted after the first reporting period assessed the data-review processes at seven federal agencies.  The IGs found:

Recipient Errors

Most of the errors by the recipients were in two categories: key information about the awards and the estimation of jobs.  For example:
One recipient received an award of $3.5 million but only reported $367, 000. 
The Department of Transportation noted that 1,200 jobs were erroneously listed under the Veterans Administration because the Iowa Department of Transportation, as a recipient, entered the wrong funding agency code.
Interior officials found that one recipient reported creating 10,000 jobs for a $5.25 million award which would mean that each employee would have been paid an annual salary of only $525.

Reasons for the Errors

The agencies identified several factors that contributed to the errors, including:

• Recipients misinterpreted the guidance for how to report
• Recipients had technical challenges in submitting data
• Recipients entered incorrect codes or numbers, and
• Human error.

Actions Taken to Improve Data Quality

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the Recovery Board, and federal agencies all took significant actions after the first round of recipient reporting to improve data quality. 

Actions taken by federal agencies included: 

• Developing and updating tools to electronically check for significant errors or anomalies in recipients’ reports
• Updating FAQs, posted tip sheets and additional guidance to their Recovery sites, and
• Contacting non-reporting and missing recipients to clarify reporting requirements.

OMB took the following actions:

• Simplified the way jobs are calculated
• Requires federal agencies to provide recipients with detailed award information, and
• Required federal agencies to focus on errors in award amounts, jobs, award numbers, and recipients’ names.

The Recovery Board also took significant steps:

• Adding hard edit checks to the reporting system that prevented recipients from submitting reports when information in specific fields was incorrect, and
• Adding alerts that questioned the information the recipient was entering if it appeared to be inconsistent with other data.

The IGs concluded that the actions taken by the federal agencies, OMB, and the Board should go a long way to improving the data.  Coordination and heightened vigilance will be critical to addressing continued concerns with the quality of data reported 

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As part of the Defense Appropriations bill signed into law on December 19, Recovery Act funds will continue to subsidize 65 percent of COBRA health insurance premiums for certain unemployed individuals. The subsidy program, which originally covered the period between February 17 and November 30, 2009, now runs through February 2010 for people who lost their jobs through no fault of their own between September 1, 2008, and February 28, 2010. 

The Department of Labor website has more details. 

Also, with enactment  on November 6 of the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009, three other key provisions of the Recovery Act were either extended or expanded.

Emergency Unemployment Compensation
This legislation added another 14 weeks of unemployment benefits. In states exceeding an 8.5 percent unemployment rate (currently 26 states), an additional six weeks of benefits are available, for a total of 20 weeks. In all cases, the $25 in Recovery funds added to each regular benefit payment also continues.

Contact your state unemployment office for details.

First Time Homebuyer Credit
The original provision – a tax deduction of up to $8,000 – applied only to people buying their first homes between April 8, 2008, and December 1, 2009. The cut-off date has now been extended to April 30, 2010. Also, a similar credit – up to $6,500 – is now available to current homeowners who buy new principal residences in the same time frame. However, those homeowners must have lived in their previous homes for a five-year consecutive period in the previous eight years before the date they buy the new home.

For either credit:

• New home can cost no more than $800,000
• Individual buyers must have income of $125,000 or less
• Joint tax-filers must have combined income of $225,000 or less

Visit the IRS website for more information.

Business Tax Credits
The new law also extends and expands tax benefits for businesses incurring net operating losses during the recession. Businesses of all sizes experiencing such losses in 2008 and/or 2009 are able to claim refunds on taxes paid up to five years earlier (expanded from two years). In the original legislation passed in February 2009, the five-year expansion applied only to 2008 and to businesses with annual gross revenues under $15 million.

In addition, the Senate voted in December to extend two key Recovery provisions that had expired. One involved a maximum federal guarantee of 90 percent of the amount of a Small Business Administration loan (vs. 75 percent, before the Recovery Act). The other was a waiver of fees the SBA normally charges to banks. Both provisions have been extended through February 2010.

Education Tax Credit
The Hope Credit has been expanded under the Recovery Act to help more parents and students qualify for this education tax credit, including those with higher incomes who were previously excluded.  Temporarily renamed as  the American Opportunity Tax Credit, it will now be available for tax years 2009 and 2010 to individuals with modified adjusted gross incomes of 80,000 or less, or $160,000 or less for married couples filing jointly.  It also adds required course materials to the list of qualifying expenses and allows the credit – up to $2,500 per student per year – to be claimed for four years of post-secondary education instead of two.

More Benefits & Tax Credits

Read how Recovery Funds are Stabilizing Education Budgets

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A field monitor checks a gas meter for leaks; technicians prepare to seal a roof prior to re-insulating an attic containing vermiculite.

A $266.8 million Recovery grant from the Department of Energy’s Weatherization Program is allowing Ohio to boost the energy efficiency of more than 32,000 homes.  Adding insulation, sealing leaks and modernizing heating and air conditioning equipment will reduce energy costs for Ohio homeowners by an average of 24 percent.  In general, the Weatherization Program allows for an investment of up to $6,500 per home in energy efficiency upgrades and is available to homeowners making approximately $44,000 a year for a family of four.  The Department of has recognized Ohio as a leader in the weatherization program with 951 homes completed in July 2009. 

Ohio allocated funds from the grant to local community agencies and other public and not-for-profit organizations.  In addition, 54 independent contractors were hired to supplement existing contractors.  It is estimated that by completion of the project at the end of March, 2012, 590 new positions will be created and 487 jobs retained.

More projects in Ohio

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Recipients awarded federal Recovery-related contracts, grants, and loans began receiving funds early in 2009. The Recovery Act requires prime and sub-recipients of $25,000 or more to report 30 days after the close of every quarter on how they used the money. The first reporting period began on October 1, 2009 and officially ended on October, 10, 2009.  Additional recipients were allowed to submit late reports until October 20, 2009. Prime and Sub-recipient — a non-Federal entity awarded Recovery funding from a prime recipient to support a project or program for which the prime recipient received Recovery funding. sub-recipients  filed a total of 130, 362 reports into FederalReporting.gov, the password-protected government website created specifically to collect all the data .  Of the total number of reports, 13,080 were reports on federal contracts, 116,675 were on grants, and 607 were loans (one recipient might have received more than one award, so the number of reports does not equal the number of recipients).  Recipients also reported a total of 640,329.17 jobs created or saved by Recovery projects: 30,908 by federal contract awards, 607,919 by grants, and 1,503 by loans.

The reports included:

• the total amount of Recovery funds each prime and sub-recipient received
  between February 17, 2009 and September 30, 2009
• the total amount of funds expended
• a description and location of the project

Between October 11, 2009 and October 29, 2009 recipients and federal agencies had the opportunity to review the reports in FederalReporting.gov; however, only recipients could make changes to their reports. 

The data on the blue map and in the charts and graphs reflects all the data from the recipient reports.  The next reporting period begins January 1, 2010.

More Recipient Reported Data

January 15 to Midnight P.S.T. on January 22, 2010
Extended Reporting Period

The Recovery Board’s decision to give recipients  additional time to report was based on several circumstances:   

• The change in calculating jobs — The guidance on the new calculation was issued just two weeks prior to the start of the reporting period
• Hard Edit Checks –  Put in place to improve the quality of the data, the edit checks also resulted in recipients needing morel time to fill out each report. 
• Timing — There were only five business days to report between the first day on January 1 and the final reporting date on January 10.

NOTE: Reports filed after January 15, 2010 will be considered late reports.

ALERT FOR PRIME RECIPIENTS:  The period for commenting on sub-recipient reports has been changed.  It is now from 12:01 A.M.  on January 23 to midnight P.S.T.

ALERT FOR FEDERAL AGENCIES: The period for reviewing recipients’ reports has been changed.  It now begins at 12:01 A.M. on January 24 and ends at midnight P.S.T. on January 29, 2010.

 If you have not registered nor reported, see the information below.

FIRST TIME REPORTERS 

If you received a Recovery Act grant or loan award of  $25,000 or more – in the period of September 30, 2009 to December 31, 2009 – you are required to report on the expenditure of those funds. Even if you have not yet received the funds.

If you received a federal contract award of any dollar amount, and have invoiced under that federal contract, you must report. 

Register at FederalReporting.gov 

If you need assistance in registering, the following are available at FederalReporting.gov in the Downloads section:

• Registration Guide
• Recipient Point of Contact Guide
• Registration Quick Reference Card

RETURNING REPORTERS
You may need to update your reports.
You do not have to re-register.

You Must Report If:

• You reported in October 2009 and the Recovery project is not yet complete.
• You reported in October 2009 and the Recovery project was completed after October 30, 2009

• You reported in October 2009 but still have not yet received the award funds              

 How to Calculate Jobs and Enhancements to FederalReporting,gov, see Recipient Reporting.

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Using $555 million in Recovery Act funds, the Department of Defense has expanded a program that can reimburse employees up to 90 percent of the price they paid for a primary residence to avoid a loss when they go to sell.

The Pentagon’s Housing Assistance Program is now available to:

1. Wounded service members relocating for treatment or medical retirement and survivors of those who have died while deployed;
2. Military personnel and Defense Department civilians affected by the 2005 round of base closings, as a result of the Base Realignment and Closing initiative;
3. Military personnel moving to a new base.

Previously, applicants had to demonstrate that the closing of their bases contributed to the decline of the area’s real estate market and a resulting loss in sales. That requirement has been waived under the expanded program.

As of January 18, 2010, almost 4,000 eligible applicants for the expanded program have been identified and 429 claims have already been paid for a total $32.8 million, according to the Pentagon.

• 412 for military personnel moving to new base
• 11 for wounded service members
• 6 for surviving spouses

States most affected, in descending order:

• Florida
• California
• Virginia
• Georgia

Details about program eligibility and limitations [PDF 764 KB]

Apply online.

Because of the economic downturn, state revenues plunged with many state governments facing combined shortfalls of more than $33 billion for both the 2008-09 and the 2009-10 school years. In response, the Recovery Act set aside $48.6 billion for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, which provides grants from the Department of Education to state governments to preserve existing school jobs, create new ones, and help pay for educational reforms. The grants are available to all public elementary and secondary schools and institutions of higher learning. 

States began applying for Stabilization Fund money last spring, and according to the Department of Education:

• Thirty-one states designated $13.1 billion in Recovery funds to fill emergency shortfalls for the 2008-09 school year
• Forty-eight states designated $20.3 billion of the funds to fill anticipated shortfalls for the 2009-10 school year
• For K-12 education budgets during the 2008-09 school year, Recovery funds filled a 9 percent revenue shortfall in California, Indiana, Alabama and Oregon; a 12 percent shortfall in Florida, Wisconsin and South Carolina; and a 23 percent shortfall in Illinois
• Public universities in 31 states used Recovery funds to help lessen tuition increases.

Data reported by recipients also lists nearly 256,000 jobs created/saved by the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund grants. But the fund is only one of the Recovery programs overseen by the Department of Education. Collectively, recipients of money from 13 Recovery-related programs have reported creating/saving  almost 400,000 jobs – mainly those of teachers, principals, administrators, instructional assistants, bus drivers, guidance counselors, librarians, school nurses, and information technology experts, according to the Department of Education.

For more information, contact your state education officials.

Read the full report:

 Department of Education Report: Summary of Programs and State-by-State Data
(PDF 1.5 MB)

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HOW RECOVERY AWARD RECIPIENTS CALCULATE JOBS

Recipients of Recovery Act contracts, grants, and loans are required to report quarterly on the number of jobs paid for with Recovery funds.  The method or formula for calculating jobs was simplified after the first round of recipient reporting.

How did the job estimate guidance change?

• The initial guidance captured jobs for a period of time longer than a quarter (February through September). The new guidance captures jobs for a single quarter (e.g., October through December). In addition, the new guidance eliminates the distinction between a job created and a job retained. Jobs are now simply based on the number of hours worked in a quarter that were paid for by Recovery funds.

It does not matter if the hours were worked by a person who was newly hired, a person whose job was saved by the Recovery Act, or a person who is in an existing position that is now being funded by the Recovery Act.

In December 2009, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued the changes in guidance to align with the recommendations of the Government Accountability Office. OMB believes the new formula will help improve the overall quality of recipient reporting.

The Math

• If a normal full-time schedule is 40 hours a week, multiply 40 hours x 52 weeks = 2,080 Total Hours per year
• Divide 2,080 Total Hours by 4 to equal 520 regular quarterly hours.
• If two full-time employees each worked 520 hours (1,040 hours) for the quarter and another half-time employee worked 260 hours, the Total Hours for the three employees is 1300 (520 + 520 + 260 = 1300).
• Divide 1300 by 520 to equal 2.5 Recovery funded jobs during that quarter.

The revisions are detailed in the Office of Management and Budget’s  Memo M-10-08.

Recipient Reporting page

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Engineers (right) inspect heating/cooling equipment at Homedale High School, built in 1940 through the WPA. Equipment tune-up will result in a potential savings in energy-related costs of $3,200 per year, according to Kenergy Energy Consulting.

Idaho’s entire K-12 public school system is getting tune-ups of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, thanks to a $17 million Recovery Act grant from the Department of Energy.

In addition, schools with equipment and facilities that flunk an efficiency assessment will be retrofitted with energy-efficient lighting, heat pumps, heating and cooling systems, and boilers. Ten Idaho engineering firms were contracted to audit all 703 schools in the state to determine which buildings and systems need upgrades the most.

The Homedale school district – site of at least one school dating back to 1940 – was selected as the pilot for the project, which began in June 2009. The overhaul of the boilers, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning units in the district’s five schools was completed in October 2009. Over the next two years, the program is estimated to create or save at least 150 jobs, according to the Department of Energy, which is also funding Idaho’s Energy Efficiency Project.

More projects in Idaho

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From February 2 through March 15,  recipients and federal agencies have the opportunity to review reports; however, only recipients can make changes.  The recipient reported maps, charts, and graphs are updated on Recovery. gov every two weeks. The next update is February 24, 2010, with the final update on March 17, 2010.

Next reporting period begins April 1, 2010.

Shiloh Road widening from two to four lanes

The Montana Department of Transportation has awarded Billings-based Riverside Sand & Gravel Inc. an $8.48 million Recovery-funded contract to expand and reconstruct Shiloh Road on the west end of the city in Yellowstone County. The project is the largest of three  reconstruction projects along the Shiloh Road corridor, a major thoroughfare.  

Beginning at Canyon Creek Bridge in the west end of Billings, continuing north for approximately two miles to King Avenue, the project includes widening Shiloh Road from two to four lanes and construction of three large box culverts, four roundabouts, a paved multi-use path, street lighting, and sidewalks.  

The upgrade of the existing road will accommodate expanded residential and business growth on the west end of Billings, an area expanding toward the smaller town of Laurel. Riverside Sand & Gravel, which employs approximately 150 workers, is expected to complete the Shiloh Road project by August 2010.

More projects in Montana