State touts positive effects of stimulus act

Data show about 30 jobs affected in Charles

Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2009

During the same period, the state's unemployment rolls have grown by more than 13,000 workers, according to state labor data from September.

Officials noted that the stimulus job creation number exceeds 14,000 using a formula that calculates indirect and induced job growth, which includes subcontracting work and jobs created as a result of more economic activity. Only direct job growth is being reported to the federal government.

The state report also shows that as of Sept. 30, Maryland expended only 6 percent of roughly $4.2 billion in expected stimulus aid, although it has only received roughly about half of that sum by the end of September.

While officials said the state has been leading the way in pumping money into highway projects — the first stimulus award was for a mile-long repaving of New Hampshire Avenue in Silver Spring — funding for health care and weatherization programs has been trickling in at a slower pace.

"There's a lot more activity coming in the days ahead," said Michael R. Enright, senior adviser to Gov. Martin O'Malley.

In Charles County, $7.7 million in stimulus money has been spent, which has created or saved nine jobs, according to federal data.

Nearly $23 million in additional grant money has also been doled out in Charles, which accounts for 20 new or saved jobs, according to the federal Recovery.gov Web site.

Maryland's data were unveiled a day before nationwide data were released that aimed to show that the $787 billion stimulus package is partially responsible for spurring economic growth and job creation.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden (D) said Friday that the stimulus has created or saved 640,239 jobs nationwide since the stimulus was signed into law in February. That number tops 1 million when factoring in an estimated 400,000 indirect jobs, Biden said.

The national data came on the heels of encouraging news about a possible strengthening of the economy.

The Economic Policy Institute released an analysis on Thursday indicating that gross domestic product expansion in the third quarter would have been 0.8 percent without Recovery Act dollars instead of the actual 3.5 percent figure reported by the U.S. Commerce Department. The EPI said the stimulus has created or saved between 1.1 million and 1.5 million jobs nationally.

But skeptics of the stimulus said it's too early to declare success and assign credit.

"It's pretty premature to be tooting our horns and saying ‘Oh look, increased government spending is fixing the economy,'" said Christopher B. Summers, president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute. "For those jobs it may have saved, there are still a lot of people scratching their heads, saying, ‘When am I going to find a job?'"

Still, O'Malley (D), who joined Biden at the White House last week in releasing the national jobs report, said the preliminary data are a strong indicator that the economy is on the right track.

"Our economy is doing much better now than it was eight months ago and will continue to do better eight months from now if we continue to work together," he said Thursday during a news conference at a Baltimore asphalt company that has taken part in two stimulus projects in Maryland.

But questions remain about whether the data accurately represent the impact of stimulus dollars. Enright said officials are learning as they go and conceded that mistakes could be made.

"We're changing the tires on a moving car right now, and we don't think it's going to go perfectly," he said during a Thursday morning briefing with reporters.

More than 1,800 education-related jobs have been created or saved through September, the most in any single category, according to the state report. Transportation funding accounts for nearly 800 jobs spread across 84 projects that have begun statewide. Maryland received more than $34 million in workforce grants that led to the hiring of nearly 750 part-time summer jobs for students.

Enright said the state can't break down how many of the 4,460 jobs were created versus saved, but he confirmed that they include 700 state employee layoffs that O'Malley included in his initial fiscal 2010 budget proposal before the stimulus package was approved.

Capital News Service correspondent Brittany Borghi contributed to this report.

abrody@somdnews.com.