Not all the federal stimulus money coming to Arkansas is going to job creation, and Gov. Mike Beebe says that's good. |
|
LITTLE ROCK - Not all the federal stimulus money coming to Arkansas is going to job creation, and Gov. Mike Beebe says that's good.
"Human services and unemployment are dealing with some pretty large stimulus dollars that were never designed to create jobs," Beebe said. "They were designed to help families through an economic crisis and provide some basic necessities of life."
Since the federal stimulus program began, Arkansas has received $322 million, with about $112.5 million of that already spent.
A report released last week by the state Office of Recovery and Reinvestment said the federal stimulus money had created or saved 2,633 jobs in Arkansas. Nationally, the White House estimates about 650,000 jobs have been created or saved so far through the two-year, $787 billion federal stimulus program.
More federal money also has been pumped into the state through unemployment benefits and food-assistance programs. As of Sept . 30, $55.6 million in federal funds had gone to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, while benefits paid to the unemployed topped $216.1 million, according to the report. Neither program created jobs.
Questions have been raised about the Obama administration's claim that the program is working, when the national unemployment rate was 10.2 percent Friday. The latest Arkansas report put the state jobless rate at 7.1 percent.
"My big concern is the job numbers," said Larry Walther, a former director of the Arkansas Department of Economic Development who later served as director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency during President George W. Bush's administration.
Beebe said last week that the stimulus program in Arkansas appears to be working. He said it would be shortsighted to look only at jobs saved or created.
"It think it's a little misleading," the governor said. "You've got to distinguish how much stimulus money was directed to prog rams that were never designed to create a job."
The governor said, however, that stimulus spending geared toward job creation, such as highway projects and education, should be monitored to make sure jobs are being created or saved.
By the end of September, the state Highway and Transportation Department had built or repaired 160 miles of roads with federal stimulus funds, creating 387 jobs in the process, the report said.
An additional 886 jobs had been created through the state Employment Security Department's adult and dislocated workers programs, and 400 jobs have been created or saved through grants distributed by the governor's office, according to the report.
An additional 245 jobs were created in local school districts and 76 were created or saved in the weatherization assistance program, where $1.1 million has already been spent on helping low-income families make their homes more energy efficient, it said.
(Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, rewritten, broadcast or distributed.)
[ Link to this article ]
