Nevada tallies 5,667 jobs created or saved

CARSON CITY -- More than 5,600 jobs have been created or saved in Nevada through President Barack Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus plan, according to information released Friday by the federal government.

On its recovery.gov Web site, the government says 5,667 jobs have been created or saved in Nevada through the $987 million in stimulus funds so far awarded to the state. Of those awards, $315 million actually has been received.

The job creation or saved figures come from reports submitted to the federal government by state, private and local government agencies that received the money.

Nevada is expected to receive $2.2 billion in stimulus funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, of which about $700 million is tax savings given residents and expanded unemployment benefits for laid-off workers.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's office reported that its figures show 6,134 jobs were created in Nevada, including 2,094 public school and 2,064 higher education teacher jobs.

Reid's office also said 615 construction jobs have been created through the $201 million grants awarded to the Nevada Department of Transportation.

The Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation added 437 jobs in the agency.

Jon Summers, a Reid spokesman, said they have more up-to-date information than reported to the federal government.

During a White House news conference Friday, Obama administration officials reported that the program has created 640,329 jobs nationally.

Almost immediately, critics in Nevada began to question the accuracy of the job creation and saved figures.

"How can you say they are creating jobs when we have 190,000 people out of work?" asked Daniel Burns, Gov. Jim Gibbons' communications director. "People are playing fast and loose with these numbers."

According to the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, the number of Nevadans holding jobs in September was 85,400 fewer than in September 2008.

Unemployment in Nevada rose to a record 13.3 percent in September, but Summers noted that Nevada was one of seven states nationally that created jobs between August and September.

The Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation reported that 1,185,400 people had jobs in Nevada in September, an increase of 11,700 from August. Even with that gain, 25,600 fewer people had jobs than when Obama took office in January.

Andy Matthews, a spokesman for the Nevada Policy Research Institute, a conservative think tank based in Las Vegas, questioned whether government really creates jobs.

"All it does is redirect resources out of the private sector and uses them to create government jobs," he said. "This revenue could have been used in the private sector to create jobs."

In the private sector, Matthews said, jobs are created because of a demand for goods or services, while they are not tied to a demand when created by government.

Since unemployment continues to rise in Nevada, Matthews said the stimulus has failed to meet its objective.

In particular, Burns disputed the idea that nearly 4,200 education jobs were saved.

Reid and Vice President Joe Biden first mentioned that 4,000 education jobs were saved during an appearance in Reno two weeks ago.

"Are you telling me we would have laid off 4,000 teachers without the stimulus?" Burns asked. "I don't believe that is so."

However, the job-saved figures came from reports submitted to the federal government by the state Department of Education and the Nevada System of Higher Education.

During the 2009 legislative session, state lawmakers put about $350 million in stimulus funds in the state budget for spending on education.

Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said it is difficult to say how many education jobs would have been lost without the stimulus funds, "but no doubt thousands of people would have been laid off."

Saving a job is just as good as creating a job, she said.

"You can question the numbers, but if you are an individual whose job was saved, it counts," said Smith, who chairs a committee that reviews stimulus spending.

Summers said the job creation or saved figures do not include the 31,000 jobs that Harrah's officials stated recently they saved through a debt cancellation provision put into the stimulus law by Reid.

If those jobs-saved figures are counted, then Nevada already has exceeded the 34,000 jobs that were expected to be created or saved when the stimulus package was approved, he said.

"Whether a job is created or saved, it counts," Summers said. "If I was the governor, I would not discount a job that was not lost. How can he, with any credibility, complain that the recovery act didn't create more jobs, when he opposed it in the first place? If he had his way, Nevada wouldn't have gotten a dime."

Gibbons initially expressed reservations about the stimulus funds, particularly that the state might be locked into providing jobs once the stimulus dollars were gone. He later embraced the stimulus funds and made them a part of his state budget proposal.

Contact reporter Ed Vogel at evogel@reviewjournal.com or 775-687-3901.