Over the past year, Santa Cruz County has received $106 million out of the $787 billion federal stimulus package. Did it create jobs? Sure, but exactly how many? Nationwide, unemployment is still at 10 percent, but Santa Cruz County it’s at 13.5 percent. Still, it prevented people from being fired, and from the unemployment figures from going even higher.
“On net balance, I think it did good,” says UCSC economist Michael Hutchison, “but at a very high cost, he adds, hedging his words. Officially, 150 jobs were added to Santa Cruz over 2009, with 86 of them in the final quarter. That comes to well over $650,000 per job. County officials are more optimistic, saying that as many as 362 jobs were either created or saved last year through the county’s departments alone—and that this doesn’t count small businesses that benefited. Public Works Director John Presleigh points out that the money was used to build roads, repair sewer lines, and even add a water plant in Davenport. It was also used to support the Kuumbwa Jazz Society and Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. Doo wop! Doo wop!
The question though is whether this is enough to stave off unemployment in the long run … and whether more money is forthcoming to create the many more jobs needed.
Read More in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
