Stimulus helped Georgia’s budget
The White House is predicting slow jobs growth for the rest of the year. That forecast reinforces the predictions of Nobel laureate Paul Krugman and others, who argued that the stimulus package should have been bigger. The stimulus saved jobs in Georgia and other states; when people have jobs, they can pay taxes, federal, state and local.
If more money had gone to cities and states, Georgia legislators might not be looking at more cuts to the state budget. Georgia’s proposed budget already includes $2 billion from the federal stimulus package:
Blood began to drip from the turnip that is Georgia’s budget on Wednesday as House budget writers gave key approval to a revised spending plan for the fiscal year that runs through June 30.
The amended 2010 budget, which will go before the full House Thursday, stands at $17.4 billion, down $1.15 billion from the budget lawmakers and the governor approved just last spring. And the cuts sustained this week are only likely to deepen as legislators begin work on a budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.Bad news was spread through the entire 117-page budget.
State employees, including teachers, will continue to see furloughs through the end of the fiscal year and increased costs for health insurance. Nearly every agency also will see 6 percent to 8 percent cuts across the board.
From The AJC:
State government agencies, businesses and other organizations in Georgia attributed 24,103 jobs to federal stimulus spending during the last three months of 2009, according to reports posted on recovery.gov Saturday.
In all, these agencies and businesses were allocated $4.8 billion in stimulus funds between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31, and received $2 billion of that amount.
Nationwide, recipients of federal stimulus dollars tied 599,108 jobs to the spending during that time frame.
State government agencies accounted for $457.4 million of Georgia’s stimulus funds during the quarter and 20,007 of the jobs, mostly for teachers, college professors, police officers and other public positions.
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193 comments Add your comment
Peadawg
February 11th, 2010
8:40 am
“The White House is predicting slow jobs growth for the rest of the year”
In other news…Damon Evans get a 90K/yr raise while I get 6 furlough days/yr here at UGA!! (I had to get that rant out of my system.)
Atleast jobs are getting created finally. Now we just have to pay the stimulus money back….
Turd Ferguson
February 11th, 2010
8:41 am
BTW…the unadjusted seasonal unemployment number is 10.7%.
pookah
February 11th, 2010
8:44 am
The Stimulus Package was a failure. The government does not create jobs, except for jobs in the government. The private sector creates jobs. The Federal Government’s only job is to protect our borders and the citizen’s within those borders. It is not supposed to create jobs. I didn’t lose “my” job a year and a half ago. It wasn’t my job. It was my employer’s. The job was eliminated due to more constraints it saw the Federal Government was about to put into place (namely the increase in minimum wage).
Sam
February 11th, 2010
8:52 am
how many jobs has the private sector created in the past 12 months?
don
February 11th, 2010
8:54 am
Your job was eliminated because of something that hadn’t even happened yet? Sounds like you weren’t doing a very good job.
When the fed funds highway construction, aren’t those jobs? And isn’t all highway construction gov’t funded (some level of gov’t)? And don’t teachers have gov’t jobs? Aren’t they real jobs? Don’t they count? In a cratering economy, the private sector can’t create jobs – it’s sort of why the economy is cratering. The jobs created aren’t long term, but neither is the recession.
It’s funny that economists say that it’s a success, republican politicians in washington say that it’s a failure, but when they get back to their district, they praise it and claim credit for it.
You can claim that it was a failure, but I’ll believe the economists.
joan
February 11th, 2010
8:55 am
Pookah has it right. Creating government jobs isn’t creating productive jobs. Government workers are necessary, but do not grow the economy. These workers are paid with tax money, mostly derived from the business sector. He/she also has it right when he/she says businesses are retracting because they believe that the Federal Government has no clue what stimulates an economy, and because it takes every opportunity to scare the heck out of business by some of the idiotic legislative proposals that cannot be paid for or sustained.
don
February 11th, 2010
8:56 am
Oh, yes – stimulus money helped Marta maintain service. This meant that people who has jobs were able to get to their jobs. This is an economic benefit.
Morrus
February 11th, 2010
8:57 am
Vote out the incumbents and start over
quod erat demonstrandum
February 11th, 2010
8:59 am
While Georgia did get some stimulus funds, what will happen when the funds run out?
If more public safety employees were hired with these funds, when the funds run out, what will happen to those “created” jobs?
How were the funds used?
Were they used to plug the holes in the budget or were they used for other purposes?
Does anyone fear the tentacles of the federal government? Once Georgia took the funds, we were put on the hook, they can not call the shots. Even more than before.
Joey
February 11th, 2010
9:00 am
That is Nobel laureate and Enron advisor Paul Krugman.
Road Scholar
February 11th, 2010
9:01 am
Pookah: I can see why you were let go!
I wish we could live in the parallel universe with no stimulus to see what the economy would be like. I also didn’t know there was so many professional economists out there!
Private sector jobs were created, or at least, maintained due to the stimulus. Transportation projects allow PRIVATE contractors to bid and get paid to do the work. Yes public jobs were also maintained; would you like for the police, fire fighters etc who protect us and provide life or death services to be laid off too?
quod erat demonstrandum
February 11th, 2010
9:07 am
don,
The reason businesses are retracting is that the customers are so unsure of the future, they are not buying.
If the customers are not buying, there is no work for those that manufacture.
If there is no work, profits drop[ and people are laid off.
Government employees are not subject to the market. Government jobs produce no product to sell. All Government jobs do are provide services and whether the economy is good or bad, your tax money will help them keep their jobs. When they pend your tax monies on these jobs, you have less to buy with, and the manufacture has less demand for their product.
The more Government spends, the less the private sector can do with the little money left in the economy.
Simple economics 101 – actually, I think it was the dumb bell course.
Road Scholar
February 11th, 2010
9:09 am
Joan, so government workers aren’t productive? Then don’t use the roads, sewer, water,etc. services so that you don’t wear them out or use them up for the rest of us who know how Government workers are productive! So only business taxes are used for government work? Last pie chart I saw showed about 10% of taxes paid were from businesses; most were from the income tax and property tax.
Your comments are funny and out of touch; every recession to date has had job programs, esp transpotation investment, as the device that ended the recessions. Oh that’s right, conservatives don’t remeber history accurately!
Wayne
February 11th, 2010
9:11 am
The printing of new money, ie stimulus, is an inefficient redistribution. Note that I simply said redistribution with no comment of “rich” and “poor”. Why not simply cut taxes- sales (for states) income (states and fed) and payroll (states and fed)? This has the same monetary effect and is more efficient. No reason to add “Nobel Laureate” to any enhance a resume as this “award” carries no more weight than former National Leagure MVP. Krugman is a one trick pony- stimulus solves everything.
earth
February 11th, 2010
9:12 am
Ask the employees of Northrop Grumund or Lockheed whether or not the government creates job Pookah. You rant, like your name, is the sound made by babies who have eaten to much strained peas.
jt
February 11th, 2010
9:14 am
No amount of federal monopoly money will save Obama’s job.
Sam
February 11th, 2010
9:14 am
and when the economy is in the tank, noones buying or manufacturing anything, jobs are going left and right, no banks are lending…..what is the government supposed to do? also, if the government employees are not subject to the market, why the furloughs and firings? why the need to cut teachers, cops, fireman? the tax revenues directly fund these things, therefore they are directly related to the ‘market’….
quod erat demonstrandum
February 11th, 2010
9:16 am
earth,
These are private sector jobs funded by the government. Where do you think the $600 toilet seats came from – Government contracts.
DAVID; AJC Truth Detector
February 11th, 2010
9:17 am
Cynthia….You TWIT——Obama said STIMULUS….was meant to STIMULATE job growth——not help with STATE BUDGETs..
BPJ
February 11th, 2010
9:18 am
Good points, don. As for joan, pookah, and the rest, think about this:
(a) there were, and are, NECESSARY infrastructure projects which would not have gotten done but for the stimulus money, including 28 bridge replacements (remember the collapsed bridge in Minnesota?), over 1100 miles of paving roads, 17 road-widening projects, and 166 transit vehicles purchased. All of these things were good and needed in their own right, and the Ga. DOT did not have the $ to do them w/out the stimulus funds. But also, these projects provided Private sector jobs.
(b) yes, many of the jobs saved (i.e., people not laid off) were public sector jobs. Some people seem to think that “doesn’t count”, because they’re not private sector. However:
(1) the 2 biggest areas in which federal stimulus funds helped state and local governments avoid layoffs were public safety personnel, and teachers. I think it’s a GOOD thing that local governments did not have to lay off police, firefighters, and 911 operators. Don’t you? I also think that fewer teachers, and more crowded classrooms, would have been a bad thing. If you like lots more “furloughs” for teachers and police, then opposition to the stimulus makes sense, sort of.
(2) The people who kept their jobs thanks to stimulus projects, whether the individuals held public sector or private sector jobs, had MONEY. That’s money to spend in a restaurant, at the grocery store, at Home Depot, at a car dealership, etc. Without the stimulus, these people would have been out of a job (competing with other unemployed) and would not have had money to spend. That would have made the recession much worse. Why is that so hard to understand?
Bubba
February 11th, 2010
9:19 am
So let me get this straight. Our tax dollars were returned to us, and that helped the state economy. Why not just let us keep it in the first place?
quod erat demonstrandum
February 11th, 2010
9:21 am
Sam,
Why try to bailout a failing economy, why not let it fail. The depression of 1920 was bad, but it didn’t last long, the depression of 1929 was bad, but the government tried to “help” and it lasted up to WWII.
http://www.oregoncatalyst.com/index.php/archives/2112-The-Other-Great-Depression.html
It’s a few years after the war and things are dire indeed. US farm export sales crashed as European farms returned to production after WW1. The beginning of depression was extraordinarily sharp: the U.S. price level declined by over 40% in 6 months and 56% for the year. The highest decline ever in the whole history of the United States. The gross national product plunged 24 percent.
As the depression grew the President began to dismantle the huge federal bureaucracies built up during WW1. The Presidents slogan was “less government in business” as he opposed excessive governmental interference in the private sector of the economy and worked to control $25 billion of Federal debt. After taking office the President had said that government ought to “strike the shackles from industry .. We need vastly more freedom than we do regulation.”
Williebkind
February 11th, 2010
9:21 am
Well the hatred of corporations by this administration and progressive liberals has contributed to the lack of new job creation. I sure would like to find a corporation that would announce some hiring but that would be a knife in the heart of liberals.
Bubba
February 11th, 2010
9:27 am
Speaking of government-private sector issues, after CT credited the government and condemned the private sector in the Toyota recall, that it turns out that it was the private sector – State Farm Insurance – that first revealed the problem to the federal regulators – who, of course, promptly ignored the problems for several years.
quod erat demonstrandum
February 11th, 2010
9:28 am
For another look on how bad times were handled successfully in the past, try this article
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=9880
Rather than follow the model of FDR— whose policies raised only Americans’ spirits— President-Elect Obama ought to consider the model of Warren G. Harding, whose policies raised Americans’ standard of living, and lifted the nation itself out of a depression— before it had a chance to become Great.
ctucker
February 11th, 2010
9:29 am
David, AJC Truth Detector, you don’t get to call me a twit. Watch your language, or go to the muttonheads’ blog.
Democrats are Corrupt, Repukes are Lying Scaliwags
February 11th, 2010
9:30 am
Excuse my off topic subject, but I am very frustrated with the Georgia Department of Revenue in trying to get a tax booklet for 2009. The state has stopped mailing tax booklets to those of us who file on paper, stopped supplying the tax forms and booklets to the libraries, and offer only an 800 phone number to request the tax booklet and forms, with a minimum 20 minute wait on the phone to make your request. What the state is trying to do is force all taxpayers to buy commercial software to do their income taxes, and I suspect if they succeed, some fat cat in the Tax office will collect a big fat bonus. I do not like this heavy handed approach, and I wish the ajc would investigate and publish a story on the Department of Revenue’s refusal to provided the required tax forms for citizens of Georgia to comply with the law and file a Georgia tax return. Thank you Ms Tucker for any help you can provide.
Williebkind
February 11th, 2010
9:30 am
Lets tax those companies who took jobs out of country for cheaper labor. I do not see cheaper prices here in the US so tax the overseas companies to make those companies who are here more competitive and bring us cheaper prices.
You know if need $3100 just sign up for school and get the Hope and Pell started. After you get the check you do not have to go to school. I see a lot of this happening!
Davo
February 11th, 2010
9:31 am
I got a bad check from a customer once. After depositing it in my account, my personal finances looked to have increased. Then I found out the check bounced. Not only did my account decrease but since I had withdrawn money under the false assumption my accounts were in order, I was forced to pay a penalty.
When the govt writes bad checks, which is all they are now, they just print more money. The accounting is going to come…and it’s not going to be pretty.
Williebkind
February 11th, 2010
9:34 am
CT, I learned from FOX news that I missed a great opportunity to get a free golf cart from the stimulus money for green energy. Yepper I will take a closer look at those new green stimulus packages from now on. I may get a free home this year.
shirley
February 11th, 2010
9:34 am
Only restructuring the state operations combined with rigorous investment in job creation and economic development will get us out of this fix. The 2 go hand in hand. Investment concentrated in cities and urban areas of Georgia will have the greatest short term and long term economic benefit.
Adam
February 11th, 2010
9:35 am
So basically the American people get taxed more, to give people jobs, so they can pay back the higher taxes? That makes a lot of sense. We should be putting the money in the hands of the people that hire workers and pay taxes. The same people that said the economy was going to slowly get better last year are the same ones that are saying it’s going to get better this year. It’s all a ploy to keep people in office. To the “Road Scholar” – a parallel universe would be the stance taken by Reagan in the early 80’s. In the face of another serious economic downturn, did he go off and rack up TRILLIONS of dollars in debt by issuing goverment run projects and money? No, he cut taxes and gave that money back to the citizens. It only resulted in the best two economic decades we’ve seen in America. No matter what we do, the government needs to be accountable for the money they spend. That goes for Republicans and Democrats. Obama did say the government needed to be run like a household, with a budget that was fixed. Good words, we’ll see if anything changes. I doubt it.
Owl
February 11th, 2010
9:35 am
Let’s cut and paste! “Home foreclosures in Columbus are up 29% this month”. Keep trying…
DirtyDawg
February 11th, 2010
9:35 am
If Federal spending doesn’t ‘create jobs’ then why do these Congressmen/women and Senators fight so hard for contracts to their local industries, or to keep bases open around their states? Why did our neighbor to the west hold up almost a hundred appointees, and still is holding three that are directly, or potentially so, tied to defense spending, in order to extort tens, and probably hundreds, of millions for a Mobile firm that’s owned by Airbus (European) as opposed to Boeing who would otherwise get the contract? Actually, the answer to that one is that Boeing ain’t in Ala-damn-bama.
When there’s not enough companies with enough money, or enough confidence, to keep the pump primed, then who else do we turn to?
Keep up the good fight!
February 11th, 2010
9:36 am
Wow the bogus economics of the wingnuts is amazing….govt jobs are only providing services and therefore do not add to the economy or the taxes reduce my spending ability and therefore that somehow decreases manufacturing….Got some news for you wingnuts….Govt and their employees buy goods and services, they provide needed services. And although I am not a government employee, I have a job in the service sector, as do many people in the economy. Unfortunately most of our manufacturing is now done overseas.
And add to that the two faced Repugnuts comments:
Rep. John Linder, Georgia Republican, posted a blog item on his Web site on Oct. 21, stating that recent unemployment figures “only reinforce the fact that the $787 billion ’stimulus’ signed into law eight months ago has done nothing for job growth in this country.” Two weeks earlier, Mr. Linder had sent a letter to Mr. Vilsack backing an application for stimulus money by the Elauwit Community Foundation, records show. With unemployment in Georgia topping 10 percent, “the employment opportunities created by this program would be quickly utilized,” Mr. Linder wrote.
_______________
Which way do you want to have it Mr. Linder. Feel free to tell your constituents your position is so solid and right that to “protect” them you’ll stop asking for money and return the stim money now.
Oh and what happens when the stimulus runs out….hmmm….the bridges and roads vanish right? The infrastructure spending just disappears?
ctucker
February 11th, 2010
9:38 am
Quod erat, The Cato Institute is basically libertarian and doesn’t believe in any sort of govt intervention. By contrast, most economists believe that FDR’s interventions were the right way to go.
ctucker
February 11th, 2010
9:39 am
Bubba, You misread me if you think I “condemned” the private sector. I believe in moderation in all things. I think a robust private sector needs to be matched by government regulations — a balance.
NYorker
February 11th, 2010
9:39 am
what a joke. I do not call keep gov’t union jobs a a successful stimulus, #1 all agency down on MLK are a joke, talk about nepotism, of course the health care went up, look at the size of most them. They cannot even fit in their chairs. spare me…
I hope GA cuts the heck out of the budget, cut jobs, cut services as well.
IF they really want to work for the taxpayers “the ones that pay taxes, not takes” they would push the unions out, fire all the union employees. Then offer them there jobs back, without pensions and a normal costing healthcare plan since WE PAY FOR IT. I know that is a bold move since they will have to work hard, worry about being fired if they do not perform and worst of all have a 401k like the rest of us, wow.
Union City
February 11th, 2010
9:39 am
Spend now and pay it back later. I’m not worried about a deficit with sooo many ppl unemployed or underemployed.
ctucker
February 11th, 2010
9:40 am
So NYorker, you wish to fire cops, firefighters and teachers?
DirtyDawg
February 11th, 2010
9:41 am
Government’s substandard performance is so because Republicans choose to make it so. It’s one of those self-fulfilling prophecies. When they’re in charge they screw it up intentionally. When Democrats are in charge they lay back and throw hand-grenades.
Was this a great country, or what?
Wayne
February 11th, 2010
9:42 am
to Dem. are corrupt: What is more amazing as one of my startups- by the way funded by friends and family as banks are back to lending off of your cash deposits- received a Ga. DOR sales tax assessment with interest and penalties for the months of March-May. All good except I was not open or operating and did not have any sales. If it weren’t so funny I would cry. I only say “good luck” to those who think government has their back and their best interest in mind and action.
Garry Owen
February 11th, 2010
9:43 am
Now our taxes go up to pay back the money. There is nosuch thing as a free lunch when speaking of gevernments.
NYorker
February 11th, 2010
9:46 am
the teachers in this state are some of the best in the country. The cops do such a great job, always see them parked in empty lots doing nothing. So yes fire them, de-unionize and offer them there job back if it is in the budget. You forgot to mention all the desk jockeys who are state employees.
GOv’t job are not what will grow an economy long term we all know that.
samuel
February 11th, 2010
9:46 am
I saw a story on ABC News the other night highlighting the fact that 2 Republican Georgia Congressmen (Phil Gingrey and Jack Kingston) went to ribbon-cutting ceremonies for projects in their districts that were paid for with stimulus money. Both voted against the stimulus bill. Obama made this point in his debate with House Republicans a couple of weeks ago. If Republicans are voting against the stimulus, but then going to ceremonies for projects that were paid for by the stimulus, what does that say about them? Can you say hypocrites?
NOBama 2012
February 11th, 2010
9:48 am
Pookah, if your a grown adult worth a s**t, the phrase “minimum wage” shouldn’t be in your vocabulary.
Mr. George
February 11th, 2010
9:48 am
These so-called fiscal conservatives happily ignore the fact that Georgia balanced its budget with $2 billion in stimulus money. How quickly they forget that the state was so broke this time last year, that they couldn’t even cut the grass along the interstate. Schools would be on 3 day weeks without that money.
DirtyDawg
February 11th, 2010
9:50 am
You know, you let these carpet-baggin’ so-in-so’s, like NYorker, come down here to ‘ply his wares’ and the next thing you know he’s turned into a stereo-typical Southern racist and wants to tell us all how to do it and that our problems can be blamed on black men and women and Unions. My bet is most of the money he has made in his life can be traced back to middle-class spending…the middle-class that Unions created during the 20th Century…and he probably brought his racism with him anyway.
Conservatism: The search for a better word for selfishness and greed…oh yes, and cheap labor.
Fang1944
February 11th, 2010
9:56 am
Williebkind
February 11th, 2010
9:34 am
CT, I learned from FOX news that I missed a great opportunity to get a free golf cart from the stimulus money for green energy. Yepper I will take a closer look at those new green stimulus packages from now on. I may get a free home this year.
————————–
You can see this myth debunked at http://www.factcheck.org/2009/02/gop-stimulus-myths/
It has been scientifically proven that watching Fox News reduces your IQ.
NYorker
February 11th, 2010
9:57 am
Road Sch.-haha..roads, sewer, water,etc. services so that you don’t wear them out or use them up for the rest of us who know how Government workers are productive!
that made me laugh hard, thank you, yes i know your a civil engineer so the stimulus benefited your job, but really, with the roads, sewer, water etc. they all stink here in Atlanta and are falling apart, keep up the good work!