Legacy reporting: What's there, what's missing from state's website
An MPR News analysis shows a quarter of the $456 million allocated in the first two years of the Legacy Amendment is missing from the state website required to be the public resource for displaying where the tax money is spent. Moreover, details are often lacking on the website about which groups or projects received grants and whether the work was finished.
Read the complete story here.
WHAT'S INCLUDED?
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• Most of the funds distributed to the Minnesota Historical Society, including individual grants to organizations and local historical societies for specific projects and programs.
• A list of programs and events held in each regional library system, including comments from attendees and specific anecdotes about the program or event's outcome.
• Funding distributed to public TV and radio stations with links to their reports to the Legislature on what was accomplished with the funds.
• All of the overall projects receiving Legacy outdoors money, with links to each project's accomplishment plan.
• About 56 percent of the money appropriated to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for 2010-2011, including a list of bodies of water and watersheds receiving money for water quality planning, monitoring and assessments.
• A comprehensive list of parks and trails projects being administered by the Metropolitan Council; a broad list of categories that received the DNR's parks and trails portion of the Legacy funding, including reporting on measurable outcomes for each funding category.
WHAT'S MISSING?
• The amount of money that went toward each program carried out in each of 12 regional library systems.
• The vast majority — $35 million worth — of grants to artists and art organizations distributed by the State Arts Board and 11 regional arts councils.
• A breakdown of costs for Legacy-funded programs carried out by public TV and radio stations.
• A list of grant recipients receiving money through the Outdoor Heritage Fund's Conservation Partners Legacy Grant Program, administered by the Minnesota DNR (recipients are listed on a DNR website, but a link to the site can only be found under "opportunities for funding" on the state's main Legacy website.)
• A breakdown of costs for all Legacy-funded partnerships between the Minnesota Humanities Center and Councils of Color.
• A full list of the hundreds of clean water grant and loan recipients that received money from the Minnesota Department of Health, Public Facilities Authority, Minnesota Department of Agriculture and state Board of Water and Soil Resources.
• A breakdown of specific projects receiving funding through the DNR's parks and trails Legacy funds.
• Up-to-date information on projects and programs from 2010-2011 that have been completed in all four areas of Legacy funding, as well as their outcomes. This information is available for only a small percentage of the listed projects.
Minnesota Public Radio is among 18 public broadcasters receiving arts and culture Legacy money. It has submitted financial reports on the $2.6 million it spent in the first two years to the state Department of Administration, which has reported public broadcasters' funding amounts and general program descriptions on the Legacy website.