$500K Stimulus For Nevada Forestry Yields 1.72 New Jobs, 1,000's of Contractor Hours

[Sidewinder]

Great. Pretty sweet if you're one of those 1.72 people...or a tree. :)

And I can't think of a better place to grow trees than the sweltering desert of Las Vegas.


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/22/taxpayer-union-slams-stimulus-project-for-lack-jobs-officials-say-it-wasnt/



Federal Stimulus Funds for Nevada's Green-Industry Grows Trees, But Few Jobs

A federal stimulus grant of nearly $500,000 to grow trees and stimulate the economy in Nevada yielded a whopping 1.72 jobs, according to government statistics.

In 2009, the U.S. Forest Service awarded $490,000 of stimulus money to Nevada's Clark County Urban Forestry Revitalization Project, aimed at revitalizing urban neighborhoods in the county with trees, plants, and green-industry training.

The project produced only 1.72 full-time jobs.

According to Recovery.gov, the U.S. government's official website related to Recovery Act spending, the project created 1.72 permanent jobs. In addition, the Nevada state Division of Forestry reported the federal grant generated one full-time temporary job and 11 short-term project-oriented jobs.

It also resulted in the planting of hundreds of trees -- which critics say is about the only good thing that came out of this stimulus project.

"Looking at the failure of the stimulus to live up to its promises, not just in Nevada, but throughout America, I think the question becomes ‘is there any good use of stimulus money?" said Douglas Kellogg, communications manager for National Taxpayers Union, in an email to FoxNews.com.

A Nevada state official has a simple explanation for the low job growth.

"If the question is ‘was this a job-creating project?’ the answer is 'no, it wasn't,' " said Bob Conrad, public information officer for the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. "It was one of a number of projects that we do believe helped improve natural resources in the state."

Conrad said the $490,000 is being used for a number of projects. Those projects include tree inventories, salaries for staff at the nurseries through the Nevada Division of Forestry, plant material and plant supplies.

"The goal obviously was to make trees available to local government entities, parks, schools, things like that, at our state nursery," said Conrad. "We basically grew and provided about 2,000 trees to these local entities."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/22/taxpayer-union-slams-stimulus-project-for-lack-jobs-officials-say-it-wasnt/#ixzz1Vpm5WU2A

[db44]

Once again, using local mismanagement to take a shot at the federal governemt. Perhaps they could have monitored the situation more closely.

I'm not sure it should have been though. What your article says, which I'm sure you didn't read down to, is the money went in part to the salaries of nursery workers. The stimulus may not have created jobs, but it kept people employed. The stimulus was supposed to both create jobs and keep people from losing their current jobs, so that was a success.

And of course you cherrypick the passages you like from the story. One line you left out was:


The grant also funds Spanish-language training for Hispanics in the landscaping and tree care industry to "develop employability skills and increase job retention."

Again, helping more people keep employed, but I'd guess in your mind these didn't count 'cause you probably think of non-English-speaking workers automatically as illegal aliens.

I certainly can't bust on the situation without knowing what was requested in the grant. Less than a half-million dollars created 12 jobs, plus allowed others to keep their jobs, and presumably with the goal being the growth of plants, it sounds like it did what it was supposed to with good results for workers.

[Richard Tafoya]

If you look at the recovery.gov site, you'll see that they're paying out thousands of hours per months in contracted worker fees. That matters a lot.