Yaaay, more jobs are being created, I meant saved

[Magox]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/on...y-exaggerated/1

 

The Boston Globe has followed the $4 billion in federal stimulus money sent to Massachusetts so far and found that the 12,374 jobs reportedly saved or created in the state to be "wildly exaggerated."

 

The money went to state agencies, universities, hospitals, businesses and nonprofit organizations. In some cases, organizations and businesses "miscounted jobs, filed erroneous figures, or claimed jobs for work that has not yet started." In other instances, no jobs at all were created.

 

The paper writes that in interviews with recipients, "several openly acknowledged creating far fewer jobs than they have been credited for."

 

How bad is the jobs math?

 

"The federal stimulus report for Massachusetts has so many errors, missing data, or estimates instead of actual job counts that it may be impossible to accurately tally how many people have been employed by the massive infusion of federal money," the Globe writes.

 

Here are examples of the creative math the Globe uncovered:

 

One of the largest reported jobs figures comes from Bridgewater State College, which is listed as using $77,181 in stimulus money for 160 full-time work-study jobs for students. But Bridgewater State spokesman Bryan Baldwin said the college made a mistake and the actual number of new jobs was "almost nothing.'' Bridgewater has submitted a correction, but it is not yet reflected in the report.

 

In other cases, federal money that recipients already receive annually — subsidies for affordable housing, for example — was reclassified this year as stimulus spending, and the existing jobs already supported by those programs were credited to stimulus spending. Some of these recipients said they did not even know the money they were getting was classified as stimulus funds until September, when federal officials told them they had to file reports.

 

"There were no jobs created. It was just shuffling around of the funds,'' said Susan Kelly, director of property management for Boston Land Co., which reported retaining 26 jobs with $2.7 million in rental subsidies for its affordable housing developments in Waltham. "It's hard to figure out if you did the paperwork right. We never asked for this.''

 

There's more to come for the Bay State: it's in line for an additional $1 billion in stimulus contracts, grants, and loans.

 

In late October the White House trumpeted that the Recovery Act "has created or saved about one million jobs so far" and that "we are solidly on track to meet our goal of 3.5 million jobs saved or created by the end of next year."

 

 

Take a look at the top of the page on the governments website regarding accountability:

 

http://www.recovery.gov/Accountability/Pag...untability.aspx

 

Accountability

 

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 makes it clear that taxpayer dollars spent under the Recovery Act will be subject to unprecedented transparency and accountability.

 

 

and they still havn't updated the jobs exaggerated since the end of October, ya "accountability"

[DC Tom]

One of the largest reported jobs figures comes from Bridgewater State College, which is listed as using $77,181 in stimulus money for 160 full-time work-study jobs for students. But Bridgewater State spokesman Bryan Baldwin said the college made a mistake and the actual number of new jobs was "almost nothing.''

 

 

But let's assume that's true. Those "jobs" are paying $480/year?

 

 

Good plan.

[murra]

But let's assume that's true. Those "jobs" are paying $480/year?

 

 

Good plan.

 

Or one job. Quite fascinating legislation.

[Magox]

It's been 13 days and they havn't yet updated these false Jobs that were "created", I'm still waiting for the unprecedented transparency and accountability.