First, Phantom Districts; now it’s ZIP Codes
Last month, the Policy Council reported that phantom districts were listed on the recovery.gov website as having received stimulus funds.
That story, first broken by Watchdog.org, has now taken another twist – phantom ZIP codes. In West Virginia, for example, $28 million is going to imaginary ZIP codes that do not exist.
Upon closer examination of the South Carolina ZIP code report, every ZIP code does indeed exist. But there are 2 data listings that do not belong. Two listed ZIP codes on the South Carolina report are not in our state – 30033 is Decatur, Ga., and 23111 is Mechanicsville, Va. A total of 8 jobs and $1,429,904 are attributed to ZIP code 30033 and 0 jobs and $17,694 to 23111.
Clearly, someone didn’t do their fact checking on the recovery.gov website.
