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Sixty-seven people put to work, to the tune of $109.8 million.
That's the stimulus payback reported by the federal government for the 16th Congressional District, which includes all of this county, a large chunk of Chester County and a strip of western Berks.
It's a waste, fumes U.S. Republican Congressman Joe Pitts, who calculates that $1.6 million was spent on each position.
"All of that money was borrowed money," he said. It will heap $1.1 trillion on the already-enormous American debt.
Local Democrats, too, say they're concerned by the nation's $11.4 trillion liability. But, unsuprisingly, they see the stimulus in a different light.
Even though the bulk of the money remains to be spent, 96th District state Rep. Mike Sturla said, the program is already helping ease economic stress.
"I think the number of jobs saved was higher than expected" because the recession was more severe than predicted, Sturla said.
More jobs equal fewer mortgage defaults and fewer unemployment benefits paid out. "But that gets discounted in this," Sturla added.
Love it or hate it, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is altering the landscape of Lancaster County.
It's underwriting repairs to Route 222, between Lancaster and Reading.
It's paying for the relocation of a taxiway at Lancaster Airport.
"It's a good thing," said David Kilmer, executive director of the Red Rose Transit Authority, which is using stimulus money to upgrade its venerable headquarters at 45 Erick Road. "We are putting people to work."
Doing the mathPresident Barack Obama said in early 2009 that the $787 billion stimulus initiative will save or create 3.5 million jobs in the next two years.
The president's economists predicted the rescue of 7,800 jobs alone in the 16th District.
The total of 67 slots listed on the administration's official Web site,
recovery.gov, does not seem to match data from local employers, who in many cases are filling part-time, temporary construction openings.
Obama officials announced 30,383 stimulus-related jobs in October, then admitted that the figure was overstated.
Recovery.gov listed 115 stimulus grants and two contracts in the 16th Congressional District, as of Oct. 30. The site reports 7,427 jobs saved or created statewide.
Pitts said the figures are "hopelessly muddled." He claims the stimulus has been less successful than the government says.
Craig Jennings, a federal fiscal policy analyst, told CBS News that the administration's jobs report card was "a rough estimate at best."
Media recently pounced when it was discovered that many stimulus dollars supported transactions that did not create or save jobs, such as buying tractor-trailers for Georgia college students practicing for commercial driver's license tests.
Pitts pronounced the recovery act "a grab bag of liberal project money" for "pig odor research" and other earmarks.
"If you really want to stimulate the economy," Pitts added, "it's not rocket science." You suspend the capital gains tax for a while. You encourage industry to expand nuclear power, "clean coal" and offshore drilling for oil and natural gas.
Sturla said such proposals amount to government handouts.
"They want [stimulus money] to go straight to the profit sector," Sturla said. "Take your tax dollars and hand them over to Halliburton — no thanks."
True, Sturla added, considerable stimulus money has gone to maintain existing jobs, education and human service programs. But that's a bad thing, he said, only by conservative lights.
Denouncing the package makes for "convenient math on their part," he said.
The stimulus adds up for Don McNutt, Lancaster County Conservation District manager.
"The stimulus money has enabled [the state Department of Environmental Protection] to continue its Energy Harvest grant program," McNutt said.
One of the grants is enabling the district to back a waste-wood-to-steam generator project at Esbenshade's Greenhouses in Brickerville, he added.
Building the generator keeps 20 people employed some days, according to McNutt.
Fifteen to 20 more are busy renovating the transit authority center, a project slated for completion next July.
The outmoded, 30-year-old center has been held together "almost with chewing gum and rubber bands," said Kilmer, the executive director.
Bus ridership has fallen as the economy has slumped, Kilmer said; the authority ran out of money for the $7 million overhaul. "I didn't think we were going to be able to do that for a year or more out. This came at exactly the right time for us."
No job is an island, Kilmer added. Because the authority is planning an energy-efficient structure with solar panels, a partial green roof and geothermal wells, the project has sparked work in the green energy sector.
The Taxiway Alpha relocation at the airport also was speeded by stimulus money.
"It was a project that was coming through the works. It just moved it up two years," said David Eberly, airport manager.
Expediting the redesign of the 1935-vintage taxiway to accommodate business jets is a tangible benefit, Eberly said.
"I think a lot of the perception is [the government] is just printing money and giving it away." But, he added, the graders, excavators and concrete workers laboring on the project are likely happy the stimulus came along.
"I can't answer the question, 'Did it save their job?' But I think certainly it put them to work."
Jon Rutter is a staff writer for the Sunday News. His e-mail address is jrutter@lnpnews.com.
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