W.Va. stimulus spending credited for 2,400 jobs

More than 2,400 jobs have been saved or created in West Virginia because of federal stimulus funding, according to those who have been spending the money.

Federal officials have reviewed hundreds of reports filed earlier this month by stimulus beneficiaries. They include state and local government agencies as well as private sector contractors and nonprofit groups.

The filings, and their jobs boasts, reflect spending from West Virginia's estimated $1.8 billion share of the stimulus between February's passage of the sprawling legislation and Sept. 30.

The stimulus program's oversight agency, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, posted the results online over the weekend. Its West Virginia counterpart is expected to follow suit as early as Monday.

Spending by state government agencies during the reporting period totaled around $250 million and accounts for about two-thirds of the jobs figure. The largest share of those 1,554 jobs created or retained, about 20 percent, were in education, according to numbers provided last week from the Manchin administration.

The next-largest share resulted from spending on Workforce Investment Act programs, which offer training and other employment services. Another 16 percent came from road and bridge projects fueled by stimulus dollars, the administration figures said.

"I think we've gotten a really good return on our dollars so far," said Jim Pitrolo, Gov. Joe Manchin's legislative director. "The best value so far has been the increased funding for Medicaid and the highway spending."

Friends and foes of the stimulus effort are expected to pore over the spending reports as they debate whether that's so.

The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board reviewed and posted more than 121,000 such filings from across the country. White House officials seized on the results over the weekend to tout the nearly 650,000 direct jobs they say have been saved or created because of stimulus program money provided to businesses, contractors, state and local governments, nonprofit groups and universities.

By also counting those receiving direct economic assistant, plus those linked to the boost from the stimulus program's $288 billion in tax cuts, the Obama administration has estimated a total jobs figure of 1 million. But Republicans in Congress have countered by citing job losses since February, and September's national unemployment rate of 9.8 percent, a 26-year high.

West Virginia ranks 41st for the number of jobs credited to stimulus spending. The state's unemployment rate remains below the national average, and Pitrolo also noted that West Virginia has relied on fewer stimulus dollars than most other states so far to keep its budgets balanced.

"I don't think that comparison is fair to West Virginia because West Virginia was lucky enough not to need much money up front," he said.

The number of jobs created per stimulus funding spent by state government varies widely by agency, according to the administration's figures. Each of the 321 education jobs attributed to the stimulus, for instance, "cost" around $10,000. But with nearly $36 million spent so far on highway-related projects, the resulting 251 jobs carry a pricetag of $143,194 apiece.

The federal oversight board's online postings put nearly two-thirds of West Virginia 2,409 jobs total in the state's 2nd Congressional District. Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito represents that district and was the sole member of West Virginia's delegation to oppose the stimulus legislation.

But most of those jobs likely reflect state government spending, as the district includes Charleston. One-fourth of the district's jobs fall within the ZIP code that serves the state Capitol Complex, with most of the rest listed for other parts of the capital city.