Limitations of the Bond Database

The bond database is a useful research tool and will give the public a better sense of the projects financed with bond funds. However, it does have some limitations:

1. Allocations are not expenditures - The database tracks state bond allocations, not expenditures. Bond allocations represent the estimated costs of the project in question. Sometimes projects cost more or less than the amount of the State Bond Commission allocation. Actual spending on specific projects is tracked at the state agency level and by the Office of Policy and Management, the executive branch budget agency.
2. The bond allocation data is not an accounting document - For the reasons discussed above, the bond allocation database should not be construed as an accounting document.
3. The allocation data do not represent a complete historical record - The database goes back a total of six and one-half years, from January 1995 to the present. It does not contain State Bond Commission allocations before that date.
4. Judgment was used in the analysis - There are over 3,400 records in the database. Each required the use of judgment for categorizing the data by use of funds, recipient category and program area.
5. Total allocations can include previously allocated funds - In certain cases bond funds are allocated for a project that is eventually cancelled or is completed under budget. The remaining funds can be "reallocated," that is, allocated again for a new project with State Bond Commission approval. Over a six and one-half year period, about 3.7 percent of the total allocations represented reuse of previously allocated funds. For this reason, the bond database contains fields that capture whether previously allocated funds are used for a new project and the amount that is reallocated.