The country's $787 billion economic stimulus package has kept an estimated 66,000 Minnesotans out of poverty, according to an analysis released Thursday by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in Washington, D.C.
The liberal think tank analyzed the direct effect of seven provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act on family incomes, including the one-time payment of $250 to people on Social Security, expanded unemployment benefits and the boost in food stamp benefits. The benefits total about $205 billion over five years. That spending lifted between 5.9 million and 6.4 million people above the poverty line nationally and lifted between 42,000 and 91,000 above the line in Minnesota, according to the report.
The group said its best estimate for Minnesota was 66,000 people helped above the poverty threshold.
The estimates are conservative, it said, because it only examined seven provisions, or about one-fourth of the stimulus package's total spending.
The poverty analysis is the latest attempt to measure the impact of the sprawling stimulus package enacted last February. Last month, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated the economic stimulus spending in the third quarter created or saved between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs nationally and raised the country's real gross domestic product by 1.2 percent to 3.2 percent.
Such estimates have been greeted with skepticism and partisan debate. Last month, the government's website to track stimulus cash -- Recovery.gov -- reported billions of stimulus dollars going to congressional districts that don't exist, including some in Minnesota.
On Tuesday, the board in charge of the website issued a statement blaming many of the mistakes on errors recipients of stimulus money made when reporting their awards. The phantom congressional districts "caused us no end of headaches and confusion in the news media," said Earl Devaney, chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board. Devaney outlined numerous steps the board was taking to fix the data problems.
Jennifer Bjorhus • 612-673-4683
