Staff Reporter
Capitolwire
HARRISBURG (Jan. 13) – Almost two years after the federal stimulus program was authorized, Gov. Ed Rendell says the program has had wide-ranging benefits in Pennsylvania.
During a news conference Thursday, Rendell touted the program as helping create and save thousands of jobs, fix miles of roads and bridges, and provide extended unemployment and food stamp benefits to workers.
But some critics still question how well the program has done on what they say was its main selling point: job creation.
Rendell said he believes the federal recovery act funds – which brought the state $16.6 billion directly, plus another $14.5 billion in tax credits and grants to local governments and others – contributed to the state’s lessening unemployment rate and other recovery indicators.
Of the $16.6 billion in state-directed funds, about $12.8 billion has been spent so far. Much of that cumulative spending has gone toward unemployment and Medicaid benefits, and education-related programs.
“The stimulus has worked,” Rendell said. “It’s not popular to say that, but it has worked. It has worked to help Pennsylvania families weather the storm, it has worked to help create and protect jobs throughout the length and breadth of Pennsylvania, and it has worked to help create a roadmap for progress for our economy.”
Rendell said that without the funds that prevented further cuts to state general fund programs, there would have been “massive layoffs” in state government.
He cited a figure from the national Council of Economic Advisors of 136,000 jobs created or saved through the federal funds.
Rep. Brian Ellis, R-Butler, who serves on the stimulus oversight commission and who has been critical of the program’s job creation statistics, said that’s a higher figure than he’s seen during the commission’s monthly meetings.
“Part of the problem was that the federal government kept redefining ‘jobs created or saved’ – how do you count a job ‘saved’?” Ellis asked. “The original purpose was a job-creation program.”
Ron Naples, the chief accountability officer and chairman of the oversight commission, argued that the purpose went beyond that: “It was popularly seen as a job-creation program, but the ARRA legislation mandated many other purposes.”
The state files quarterly reports, in which it calculates “full-time equivalent” jobs created or saved through the stimulus dollars. Officials say that figure is lower than the number of people who have held stimulus-related jobs, because part-time jobs only count as a portion of one full-time job.
Those reports can be seen on the state recovery act website.
The fourth-quarter report for last year reported 10,780 full-time equivalent jobs were funded during that quarter. Mary Soderberg, the state budget secretary and chief implementation officer for the stimulus funds, said that figure is “considerably less” than the previous quarter’s job count.
Soderberg attributed the lower figure in part to the end of the construction season, noting that “a lot of the jobs we report have been through PennDOT.”
Department of Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger, who reported to the commission on implementation of the energy-related program funds, said those programs created 164 permanent jobs and 1,892 temporary jobs.
Hanger called those figures “extremely conservative,” because they don’t account for indirect jobs, such as those producing the materials used in the stimulus projects.
While about three-fourths of the federal funds have been spent so far, various initiatives are at different stages of completion.
The infrastructure funds for road and bridge construction, among the first contracts that were approved, are nearly complete. Work has started on all but two of the 344 projects, resulting in 541 miles of road resurfacing and 282 bridges brought into compliance.
About half of the 112 projects through PENNVEST for drinking-water facilities have been completed, and 16,000 out of 30,000 anticipated homes have been weatherized.
Rendell said much of the remaining funds will go to school improvement grants and other education-related programs during the next year, as well as some funds for the remainder of the weatherization program, some criminal justice grants and broadband updates.
