Report shows Nevada short on stimulus jobs

With nearly 15 percent of contracts awarded through a small part of the federal stimulus program, fresh statistics show that newly created jobs are often going to states that need them least, according to a Friday report from The New York Times.

At issue is a $16 billion program granting contracts to private businesses to build federal projects. About $2.2 billion of that initiative has filtered through to contractors, but it's not coming in large volume to high unemployment states such as Nevada.

Nevada's unemployment of 13.2 percent is the nation's second-worst jobless rate. But the Silver State's $57.4 million share of federal-contract money represents 2.6 percent of the total awarded nationwide, while North Dakota, where unemployment is just 4.3 percent, received 4.3 percent of funds granted. Its $96 million in contracts was almost twice the dollars Nevada companies collected.

What's more, North Dakota reported creating or saving 219 jobs, while Nevada businesses formed or spared 159 jobs. Nevada has roughly five times the population of North Dakota.

Colorado, which has a jobless rate of 7.3 percent, received 26.5 percent of dollars awarded so far, with $583 million in contracts.

Local observers said they aren't sure why hard-hit states such as Nevada have taken in fewer dollars, but The New York Times blamed rules requiring that stimulus money go to existing federal programs and priorities. Those stipulations prevent federal agencies from targeting high-unemployment areas, the newspaper said. For example, the biggest source of federal contracts is $6 billion the Department of Energy received to clean up nuclear sites. Those dollars must be spent where the nuclear waste is.

Asked to comment on why high unemployment states haven't captured the contract dollars their better performing counterparts have won, Jon Summers, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said The New York Times' report doesn't detail total stimulus jobs saved or created. Rather, it emphasizes job formation and salvation based on a $16 billion portion of Congress' $787 billion economic recovery package.

"There is a lot more to come, and the fact is the stimulus package has already created or saved more than 6,000 jobs in Nevada," Summers said.

Also, the process of awarding contracts for federal work has just begun, Summers said, and contractors are still working through the application and review process.

Linda Carpenter, a bookkeeper with Carpenter Sellers Architects in Las Vegas, agreed that it's too early to determine the program's economic impact on Nevada.

Carpenter Sellers is preparing to bid on four or five federal projects, but the process runs slowly, Carpenter said. The firm must draw up proposals, submit plans, tweak those proposals based on federal feedback and resubmit them for final approval. It can take months to get through bidding, Carpenter said.

"They require more paperwork than state, city or county jobs, but we understand that they want transparency, and they want to make sure the funds are not being wasted," she said. "Everything is being done correctly, fairly and honestly."

Carpenter also won't complain because the one stimulus contract the firm has won allowed the design studio to save five positions, or 20 percent of its 25-person staff. The $174,788 agreement to provide architectural and engineering services for the Bureau of Land Management's Black Rock administrative center in Washoe County preserved jobs including project manager, licensed architect and computer-aided design specialist, Carpenter said.

Other contractors receiving awards as of Wednesday include the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board, which got $1.1 million in YouthBuild grants to help high-risk people between 16 and 24 to learn construction skills and finish high school, and National Security Technologies, a Northrop Grumman Corp. joint venture that won $22.6 million to install groundwater monitoring wells at the Underground Test Area Project northwest of Las Vegas. The investment board hasn't reported any new or saved jobs from its grant yet; National Security Technologies said it has saved or created 39 jobs.

The architecture firm of Tate Snyder Kimsey received $3 million to provide design and engineering services for the Otay Mesa Land Point of Entry in San Diego, but the studio has reported just 1.47 jobs created or saved with the money thus far. The firm's office was closed Friday, so its principals couldn't be reached for comment on whether more jobs will come from the contract.

Nevada's leaders aren't relying solely on direct federal spending with private contractors for an economic boost.

The state Department of Transportation said on Oct. 5 that it had created 366 jobs with $208.7 million in recovery funds. Nearly 100 of those positions involve rebuilding a depot and constructing other projects on the Virginia & Truckee Railroad line between Carson City and Virginia City. The railroad closed in 1950 but reopened in August as a tourist excursion train.

Most of the department's remaining workers are laying pavement on deteriorating roads across the state.

Department spokesman Scott Magruder said most of the agency's projects are just beginning, and job creation will pick up steam in coming months.

Summers also noted that a federal debt-cancellation provision that Reid inserted into the stimulus bill helped Harrah's Entertainment avert more than 31,000 layoffs in Nevada.

And Vice President Joe Biden, visiting Reno on Friday, said the stimulus package has kept 4,000 teachers employed in Nevada.

The New York Times said the new jobs figures don't shed much light on how well the $787 billion stimulus program is doing at meeting President Barack Obama's goal of saving or creating 3.5 million jobs over two years. The administration estimates the program has created or saved 1 million jobs, but with the nation's unemployment rate at 9.8 percent, Republicans say the program is failing to generate enough jobs, The Times reported.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.