Education, labor and training get bulk of RI stimulus jobs
5:03 PM Fri, Oct 16, 2009 | Permalink
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PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Nearly all of the 1,700 state jobs that have been paid for by federal stimulus money come from five departments, state officials said Friday afternoon. On Thursday -- the same day federal authorities reported that direct federal spending has created only six jobs in Rhode Island -- the governor's Office of Economic Recovery and Reinvestment said it had told the federal government that stimulus money funneled through the state has paid for work equating to 1,703 jobs. On Friday, the office offered a breakdown of where in state government those jobs came from. Little other detail was available, officials said, as they continue to analyze the data. The department of Elementary and Secondary Education led the way, accounting for 558.54 full-time equivalents. A full-time equivalent accounts for part-time and seasonal jobs by tallying them as a proportional fraction of a full-time job. Next came the Department of Labor and Training, with 470.13 full-time equivalents, followed by the Department of Corrections, 335.35; the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, 161, and the Department of Transportation, 132.85. The Airport Corporation is a state agency that runs T.F. Green and several smaller state airports. Four other departments accounted for a total of 45.58 full-time equivalents. The jobs counted under the information released Friday include direct state jobs, jobs at vendors with state contracts and jobs created by private agencies that are paid to perform government functions. 
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Why is government stimulus money going to the Airport Corporation? Last year Dillon stated they received no state aid in order to justify giving out nearly $500,000 in bonus's. When they get bonus's again this year it'll be again on the backs of taxpayers.
Where are the private sector jobs? If there were a lot of them they'd have broken the numbers down. This was nothing more than a giveaway to state workers and teachers. Screw the private sector right? We've got 13% unemployment in the private sector anyone care to take a guess what the unemployment rate is for recent state workers or teachers? Pretty damn low and we just ponied up to keep it that way.
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And....WHOM, may I ask is going to pick up the cost of these 1703 STATE JOBS once the Stimulus Money runs out, which was only to cover the INITIAL cost of hiring these people....many of whom, as is usually the case knew someone (IE: Political hacks???) to get them??
The answer is YOU % I the beleaguered RI Taxpayer!
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It's all smoke and mirrors. School Departments that pay tuition to specialized schools have been asking them to provide information on the percentage of FTEs that their tuition payment covers. For instance, if a school department pays XYZ School $10,000 for the months of April, May and June, it wants to know how that $10,000 covers the salaries of XYZ's faculty. XYZ responds with info indicating that the $10,000 covered 14% of a full-time teacher and %23 of a speech therapist. The School Department then adds up all those results and reports to the state that stimulus money (which was what was used for the tuition payments!) created X number of full-time jobs. It's just a sham.
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What an absolute joke. Instead of "shovel-ready", it appears what Obama really meant was "pencil-ready". Somehow, I don't think the average taxpayer was aware that we'd be 'stiumulating' the government with the $787B scam. Only in RI, where public education is already astronomically expensive, would the state use stimulus money to hire 558 people in order to expand an already obese state education bearocratic Blob. It's become simply embarrassing.
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More money thrown away. Stimulus it isn't, but it is Pork!!!
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This is the most idiotic scenerio that anyone could imagine that stimulus money would be used for, and it be great to see:
1. Who is coordinating the stimulus funds\
2. What is the amount of money being paid to each person on the "oversight" committee and what is their affiliation
3. What NEW Jobs have been established (excluding the Youth Hours)
4. What NEW jobs will be sustained with non-stimulus funds
5. What non-state jobs, e.g., nurses, carpenters, mechanics, electritions, etc, have jobe because of this stimulus in RI
6. How does RI campare to the US per dollar spent (efficiency, effectiveness.
I am guesing that the state has hired more people to administer the stimulus funds then has been hired by the funds. I would also assume that the number of jobs (new hires) of 6 recorded by the Feds is really closer to the right number because beuracrats love to make the numbers dance their way. This is all surealistic given that the RI government just pushed the union to decreases in wages and benefits. You can't make this stuff up!
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