That's one of the questions Texas Watchdog gets asked a lot. Folks interested in government transparency have lots of questions about the economic stimulus package: How do we know how much of the federal money pouring like a river into states will help create jobs and build "shovel-ready" projects, and how much is just good ol' political pork?

Well, the definition of political pork has been debated since the idea was invented. But at least state Comptroller Susan Combs has put a spreadsheet of all the Texas projects slated to be funded by the federal stimulus on her Website for everyone to view.

You can link to the spreadsheet at the above site or you can view the Texas economic stimulus projects here.

We certainly found lots of projects that actually go toward building things, such as $115 million for the "construction, reconstruction, and repair of roads, bridges, property and facilities," etc. ... for US Fish and Wildlife-managed areas in the state.

Other items seem to stretch the definition of stimulus:

$40 million to combat narcotics trafficking;

$650 million in coupons for the Digital-To-Analog Converter Box Program;

$400 million to NASA for weather research;

$400 million for "unspecified" energy efficiency grants; and

$5 billion in grants to the Texas Dept. of Housing & Community Affairs to educate residents about energy efficiency and improve their homes.

We've only just begun looking at the list. In the meantime, we'd like to get your thoughts. Take some time this weekend and look over the spreadsheet. Are all the projects necessary? Should more be on the list? What's stimulus? What's pork? Shoot us an e-mail at news@texaswatchdog.org.