Source: AP
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Federal stimulus money created or saved nearly 8,300 jobs in Wisconsin, most of them held by teachers, police officers and firefighters, according to an audit submitted to the federal government.
About 6,100 of the nearly 8,300 jobs saved were held by people working in those professions, according to the audit released Tuesday by Gov. Jim Doyle’s administration.
That means fewer than 2,200 new jobs have been created with the $680 million in stimulus money spent by the state from February, when President Barack Obama signed the law, through the end of September.
Doyle’s office had no breakdown on how many jobs were created and how many were saved, or how many were in the private sector, because the federal government did not ask for that information, said Chris Patton, director of the state’s Office of Recovery and Reinvestment.
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Other states’ job creation figures also showed teachers were among the biggest beneficiaries of the $787 billion stimulus package. Nationwide, tens of thousands of teaching jobs were saved as stimulus money supplemented state and local budgets, according to preliminary figures obtained by The Associated Press.
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The Obama administration, as well as Doyle, has argued the economy would be much worse without the stimulus. That argument appeared to be bolstered Tuesday by Wisconsin’s chief economist, who told lawmakers the state’s economy improved as the stimulus kicked in.
from this Latest Breaking thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4103231I'm a little surprised that the ORR thinks it can guess what local governments and school districts would have done without the stim money.