LANSING – The presence of federal stimulus money in Michigan created or saved almost 20,000 jobs, mostly in education, according to a report the state submitted to the federal government that was released Monday.
The figures reflect the impact of $620.5 million of the $2.1 billion in total state spending of stimulus funds in Michigan because only 29.5 percent of the spending came in programs required to be a part of the quarterly report.
“I think we’ve seen so far what the first phase of the Recovery act was designed to do: address the immediate crisis,” said Leslee Fritz, director of the Michigan Economic Recovery Office. “I think it’s a good start.”
The report, submitted prior to midnight Saturday, did not include stimulus spending on Medicaid, unemployment benefits, food assistance – generally any item where the funds go toward an individual person. It also does not include any spending where the stimulus money went straight from the federal government to an entity other than state government.
About 1,300 recipients in Michigan are registered to receive federal stimulus money. Overall, $9.3 billion in federal stimulus money has been allocated to Michigan entities with $3.67 billion allocated to state agencies in programs required to participate in the first report to the federal government.
According to the state, 14,483 jobs in education were created or saved. Fritz said the state was able to pour $600 million in federal stimulus funds into K-12 schools during the summer to prevent a severe reduction in school aid that would have led to widespread layoffs.
Other areas where substantial numbers of jobs were created or saved, according to the report, were the general workforce (3,386), infrastructure (1,172), human services (286) and energy (97).
Fritz said the bulk of the nearly 20,000 jobs created or saved were jobs saved.
“That is critically important to stop the bleeding,” she said. “We’ve got a long, long way to go.”
The reports filed with the federal government are hundreds of pages and difficult to decipher because they use code numbers to describe the funding agency. However, Ms. Fritz said once the federal government posts the reports at recovery.gov on October 30, the codes will be replaced by the name of the agency.
The data released Monday is subject to a 10-day review period and considered preliminary until the close of the period on October 21.
This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com
a>>
