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Florida has gained or held onto 30,000 jobs as a result of federal stimulus spending.
That's the latest from the federal Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, which tracks on-the-ground spending as the nation awaits results from the $787 billion economic stimulus effort.
The agency's Web site now lists grants, loans and contracts. Locally, that's everything from $42,500 to help the Boys & Girls Club of Hernando County with mentoring to $24 million to make Tampa public housing more environmentally efficient.
County by county, it breaks down to $428 million for Hillsborough, $193 million for Pinellas, $93 million for Pasco and $28 million for Hernando. The data released Friday did not include complete information on every local project.
Nearly two-thirds of the nation's 650,000 affected jobs are in education or construction, the White House said. In Pasco, that includes 12 jobs so far made possible by $1.6 million given to Pasco-Hernando Community College. The grants also include more than $14 million for Hernando public schools, which can fund teacher positions and better serve disabled children.
More than $1.1 million has been granted to the Suncoast Community Health Centers in Riverview for technological upgrades to serve uninsured residents and Medicaid recipients.
An additional $15 million is going to the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit organization, to buy buses, paratransit vans and other equipment.
In Brooksville, Vice Mayor Lara Bradburn was happy to hear the city is getting $2 million for projects.
"That is for water and sewer lines, many in south Brooksville,'' she said, referring to an area that needs infrastructure improvements.
Not all money leads to jobs.
SRI International, a high-tech research company in St. Petersburg, received a $477,000 grant for research with the University of South Florida. According to the federal report, no job will come of the grant.
Other major projects have yet to start. The 2.6-mile upgrade of U.S. 19, a $157.3 million project, did not show any jobs being created. The stimulus provides $44.9 million, but construction begins later this year.
While job growth inevitably lags the allocation of money, administration officials say the economy is growing as a result. The White House pointed to the economy's 3.5 percent third-quarter growth rate as evidence of the stimulus' effect. Job creation has been a litmus test for President Barack Obama, with unemployment at 9.8 nationwide and 11 percent in Florida.
The data was met with immediate criticism. One economist took issue with Obama's promise to create or save 3.5 million jobs in two years.
"One can search economic textbooks forever without finding a concept called 'jobs saved.' It doesn't exist for good reason: How can anyone know that his or her job has been saved?" wrote Allan Meltzer, an economics professor at Carnegie Mellon University, in a memo released by House Republicans and published in the Wall Street Journal.
"The administration can make up any number it pleases. The number has no meaning."
Times researcher John Martin and staff writers David DeCamp and Barbara Behrendt contributed to this report, which contains information from the Wall Street Journal. Marlene Sokol can be reached at (813) 909-4602 or sokol@sptimes.com.
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