Data reported by recipients of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grants are scheduled to be available October 30 at www.recovery.gov. The data posted to the federal website includes Ohio's reports from the Act's inception through the close of the first quarterly reporting period ending September 30.
The information below reflects awards provided directly to the State of Ohio. It does not include all reported awards in Ohio, such as those to local government, non-profits, businesses and other prime recipients. Therefore, the below information does not fully reflect the totality of the Recovery Act's impact on Ohio.
The 13,500 jobs created or retained as a direct result of the Recovery Act, range across numerous sectors in Ohio's economy:
The impacts of the Recovery Act are felt beyond the job creation numbers. Below are a few examples of how Ohio's general population has benefited:
Under Section 1512 of the Act, recipients of federal stimulus funds are required to report a combination of financial and programmatic data designed to provide the public with a greater level of transparency and increased ability to track stimulus spending.
At the end of the first reporting period ending September 30, federal and state agencies began a one month review period during which time reports are submitted and updated. Ohio met the first reporting deadline of October 10 when the state submitted reports for more than 250 separate awards on October 9.
During the period from October 11 to October 30, state and federal agencies made modifications to some data elements reported to FederalReporting.gov (the federal reporting system). Overall, there were few material changes. The total direct jobs created/retained as of October 30 is higher than it was when the original preliminary figures were submitted October 9. The primary reason for this increase was a revision to the way the Department of Transportation calculated jobs created and retained. At the request of the Federal Highway Administration, in order to more accurately mirror the way jobs are calculated by other reporting entities across the country, ODOT revised its methodology. As a result, total direct jobs created/retained increased by about 500 full-time equivalent jobs.
These types of changes are common matters of presentation as federal agencies work with all 50 states to promote uniform methodologies and categorization of grants.
The collection of such a large amount of data from many different sources and systems was a significant undertaking. While ARRA allows states to charge limited administrative costs to stimulus funds to develop a centralized reporting system, the state has not yet done so. In order to ensure that as much funding as possible passes through to recipients, the State of Ohio established its central reporting system almost entirely through existing resources, leveraging several different technological platforms including the Ohio Administrative Knowledge System. Ohio's central reporting system enabled the state to meet its reporting requirements by tracking and submitting more than 150,000 individual data elements and over 110,000 accounting transactions.
Section 1512 of the Recovery Act requires prime recipients to report data including:
The 1512 section of the federal law does not require reporting for:
Therefore, the following programs are not included in this reporting:
This represents about $1.2 billion in stimulus dollars that are not reported through 1512 reports but already expended in the state.
In addition, the Recovery Act includes personal income tax relief (impacting 95% or Americans and 4.5 million Ohioans), first time home buyer credits and cash for clunkers.
Prime recipients, like the State of Ohio, have been directed to compute jobs as Full-Time Equivalents. Therefore, if two half-time jobs are created or retained, this must be reported as one-full time job.
This data does not show indirect jobs (jobs created for suppliers) and induced jobs (jobs created in the community as a result of the stimulus project). For example, the state of Ohio will be spending nearly $1 billion in increased construction of roads, bridges and other transportation projects, therefore greatly increasing the purchase of materials. These purchases will have an impact on indirect jobs created and retained, but those jobs are not included in these reports. The President's Council of Economic Advisors is responsible for calculating the broader jobs numbers.
As a result of all these factors, job numbers will not completely reflect the impact of the Recovery Act on employment.
** Please see the Council of Economic Advisors' reports for an analysis of job numbers.
All Prime Recipients of Recovery Act awards from the federal government must file 1512 reports and financial data to the federal government. This includes:
The State of Ohio reported on a total of 55 stimulus programs in addition to 198 ODOT project reports. Counting ODOT as one program, Ohio reported on 56 programs administered at the state level spanning 51 separate CFDA numbers. (See list of Ohio administered ARRA programs.)
Ohio cities, villages, townships, counties and non-profit organizations that also received direct awards of Recovery Act funds from the federal government must also report 1512 information and financial data directly to www.federalreporting.gov.