Report: Stimulus adds jobs in Minnesota

From new dishwashers for the Albert Lea School District to a new counterterrorism police force to patrol buses and trains, federal stimulus money is pouring in to Minnesota and has directly preserved or created 11,800 jobs so far, state officials reported Monday.

The state's first comprehensive report on how federal stimulus money is affecting Minnesota showed that while much of the money is going to unemployment benefits and medical assistance payments, millions of dollars are flowing in to projects and programs that range from rebates to consumers who buy energy-efficient appliances to services for the blind.

One project, totaling $5.59 million, will build living quarters at Camp Ripley, the longtime military training base in north-central Minnesota, and install backup power and heating systems at many of the 63 National Guard armories scattered across the state. Nearly $470,000 will go to replace a bridge over the St. Francis River in central Minnesota.

"The block layers were waiting for this job to get going so they could get back to work," said Jim Kuechle, the co-owner of a construction company in Cold Spring, which got a contract to build an addition and re-roof a service building at the National Guard armory in Willmar. "They didn't have any other job going. ... It kept those guys working."

The Minnesota Management and Budget Office, which released the preliminary figures, said programs administered by the state will receive $4.7 billion in federal stimulus funding. As of Sept. 30, the office reported, state agencies had spent $1.6 billion of that money. Among the jobs saved or created by stimulus funds: 5,942 education-related jobs and 1,200 public safety and medical spots.

Preliminary estimates also show that, when adding jobs that were indirectly created, 20,100 total jobs had been preserved or created in Minnesota using federal stimulus money.

Putting people back to work

Management and Budget Commissioner Tom Hanson said statistics showed that the stimulus money "puts people to work," and was having a "snowball effect" by indirectly sparking more job growth. As an example, he said, a highway construction job in Minnesota made possible with federal stimulus money might cause a company to buy a bulldozer from Tennessee that also meant jobs for workers at an out-of-state factory.

Appointed by Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty, an outspoken critic of the federal stimulus program, Hanson said the figures were based on actual jobs created and that the government's pump-priming role was seen by economic experts as having merit.

"The problem is the private sector isn't creating the jobs right now," Hanson said.

As one of President Obama's most ambitious and controversial undertakings, stimulus spending has become a lightning rod for the administration, drawing praise and criticism as the country struggles through the worst economic recession since World War II.

In Minnesota, DFL officials said federal stimulus money had eased the state's economic pain, saving and creating jobs and "laying the foundation for future prosperity."

Federal stimulus money, said DFL Party Chair Brian Melendez, "is doing exactly what it was designed to do."

But Pawlenty spokesman Brian McClung said the stimulus program remained flawed, and said that the $1.6 billion spent to produce 11,800 jobs meant that each job cost more than $135,500 to create.

"Governor Pawlenty believes stimulus funds should have been more targeted to put money quickly into people's pockets or to directly create more jobs rather than spending so much on government bureaucracy," McClung said.

State officials said they did not have statistics showing how many of the jobs created were in the public sector as opposed to the private sector.

Economy still floundering

Monday's preliminary report came as new figures showed Minnesota's economy continues to flounder.

The latest findings showed that general fund revenues for the first quarter of fiscal year 2010 were 1.7 percent below previous estimates and economic experts say that while the recession is over, the recovery will be slow.

Better emergency response

Many of the state's National Guard armories are using stimulus funds to install backup sources of heating and electricity needed when the buildings are used as emergency shelters during natural disasters.

Terry Palmer, comptroller for the state Department of Military Affairs, said too often, when electrical power is lost in a town where the National Guard armory serves as a shelter, the armory also lost power.

"These facilities will have probably two to three days worth of self-sustaining capability should there be an emergency like a flood or snowfall that puts out the power in a community," Palmer said. "[It] was something we had wanted to do, but didn't have the funding to do."

The preliminary report -- a final report will be posted Oct. 30 by the federal government -- shows that stimulus funds are arriving in almost every corner of Minnesota.

The Mountain Lake Elementary School, according to the reports, used $8,069 to buy a double-stack, commercial-grade convection oven -- part of a program to upgrade cafeteria equipment at schools. The Metro Transit program will use $1.33 million to create a special police force and fund it for three years. Metro Transit Police Chief David Indrehus said the special team would receive "very specific counter-terrorism training."

Also included in the stimulus money is $5 million for a state energy-efficient appliance rebate program scheduled to begin early next year -- an initiative dubbed "cash-for-clunker appliances." State officials said that while details are still being worked out, the money should arrive in Minnesota late next month.

Mike Kaszuba • 651-222-1673