West Virginia Broadband Consultant earns $732K

West Virginia spent $512,000 in federal stimulus funds last year to pay a consultant who's helping to manage the state's high-speed Internet expansion project while living in Colorado.

The state is on pace to spend another $329,000 for the consultant's services this year. The state didn't start paying the Denver-based consultant, Perry Rios, through a contract with Verizon until February 2011, even though the state Office of Technology approved Rios' contract in July 2010. He began work on the statewide broadband project two months later. The state has paid $196 an hour for Rios' services, or $731,770 through the end of last month. Rios isn't the only high-dollar consultant hired through Verizon.