City Controller of Los Angeles: $111 Million Stimulus Saved 55 Jobs

Wendy Greuel, City Controller of Los Angeles writes for Huffington Post:

Los Angeles Shows $111 Million in ARRA Grants Has Only Created 55 Jobs (Wendy Greuel, 9/16/2010 Huffington Post)

"I released two very disappointing audits today of how the City of Los Angeles has used American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds. The audits looked at the how the two departments that have received the largest amount of ARRA funding so far - the Department of Transportation (LADOT) and the Department of Public Works (DPW) - have used those funds and how many jobs were created. Los Angeles has become the largest City in America to conduct an audit of how ARRA funds have been expended.

"DPW has received $70.65 million and created or retained 45.46 jobs, though they are expected to create 238 jobs overall (the fraction of a job created or retained correlates to the number of actual hours works). LADOT has been awarded $40.8 million and created or retained 9 jobs, though they are expected to create 26 jobs overall. Overall, the Departments have received $111 million in federal stimulus funds out of the $594 million the City has been awarded so far and created or retained 54.46 jobs.

"I'm disappointed that we've only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million in ARRA funds. With our local unemployment rate over 12% we need to do a better job cutting the red tape and putting Angelenos back to work." [Emphasis is mine. The article continues.]

Even at a liberal/progressive bastion like Huffington Post, the readers' comment section is getting sharper and better than the main article. Here are some of the posts:

See, this just goes to prove that Paul Krugman is right -- if the stimulus had been several trillion dollars, we could easily have created a couple hundred jobs in Los Angeles. Maybe even 250! And then, man, we're on the road to recovery.

Only government can give you value for money like that.

I am not sure what is more astounding - that $111,000,000 only created 55 jobs or that spending $420,000 per job to get the 264 anticipated would have been considered a success.

There's a reason why people go into public service. It's because there's no way in hell they would survive in private enterprise.

they would probably be better off if they just paid 2000+ people 50k for a year to do nothing.

What Ms. Greuel would never admit but is crystal clear to everyone else outside any government: government ISN'T the answer. It never was, it never will be.

(h/t jdgreger)

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