Is Oklahoma Getting Its Fair Share of Stimulus Funds?

Researchers at Oklahoma City University are examining if Oklahoma got a fair share of federal stimulus funding. <BR><BR><A href="http://www.ok.gov/recovery/" target=_blank>Stimulus Watch: Follow the Money</A>

Friday, August 14th 2009, 3:26 pm

By: News 9


By Amy Lester, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY - Researchers at Oklahoma City University are examining if Oklahoma got a fair share of federal stimulus funding.

Economics professor Steve Agee and incoming freshman Joel Cranmer are investigating how stimulus funding was distributed to each state. They started the project to see if states that voted Democratic in the presidential election received more money.

Did Oklahoma
Get a Fair Share?

View News9.com's interactive map to see how Oklahoma's stimulus funding compares to neighboring states. 
>>Launch Map

"We did get a little bit of a surprise," Agee said. States that voted Democratic in the election, were allotted twice as much money as states that voted Republican. But Agee blames the difference on population not politics.

"I don't think anything unfair is going on, or sinister is going on," Agee said.

The states that voted Democratic tended to have higher populations. When the researchers broke the funding down per person, blue states were allotted 52 percent of the funds while red states received 48 percent.

"It's not entirely equal, but it's pretty close to it," Agee said.

Washington D.C. topped the list with $4,000 per person. Oklahoma ranks 24th with about $777 per capita, more than all neighboring states except New Mexico.

"I thought it was interesting that we did get more than our surrounding states," Cranmer said.

The team plans to continue examining the data to see why certain states ended up at the top of the list.

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