Numerous Ways to Track Stimulus Spending in Illinois

Track USDA and HUD Stimulus Funds on Interactive Map
Been wondering how much money Illinois received so far in stimulus money related to agriculture or housing?  This is the map for you.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) created an interactive map of the country to track the locations and dollar amounts of ARRA projects funded through USDA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  You can locate programs by state, county, immediate location, and grant received.  Projects can be searched by agency within USDA and HUD and by funding amounts.  At the time of this blog post, the map shows 349 projects that were funded in Illinois to the amount of $538,972,688.03.

Illinois Recovery Website Redesign Improvement
After Illinois’s main recovery and Transportation websites scored 0 out of 100 by advocacy group Good Jobs First (see  Illinois Recovery in the News: the Good, the Bad, and the Improving ), the sites underwent changes to improve content and transparency related to the spending of stimulus dollars.  On the Illinois Department of Transportation stimulus website you can now search for stimulus money spent by county and congressional district.  Though the main Illinois recovery website still lacks the ability to see specific awarded amounts from the stimulus, the non-profit investigative journalism organization ProPublica website does just that.  Visit their Recovery Tracker website for Illinois to see funding by federal agency, funding received by county, and a list of statewide and non-county specific grants and their award amounts.