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Narrow jolt

THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: November 4, 2009

Gov. Charlie Crist has received a lot of grief from the conservative wing of the Republican Party for endorsing the economic stimulus program put forward by the Obama administration. Those rumbles on the right are taking a tangible form: Former Florida House Speaker Mario Rubio, who is more conservative than Crist, is giving the governor more of a race in the GOP U.S. Senate primary campaign than most political observers thought. So Crist is anxious to show that the stimulus program he has embraced is paying dividends.

According to Don Winstead, Crist's "stimulus czar," the federal funding package has created or saved 23,944 jobs in Florida during the calendar quarter that ended Sept. 30, according to an Associated Press report. Since many people have started stimulus-funded jobs since the end of the quarter, the actual total is more like 47,000, the state says. If jobs indirectly created in response to Florida's stimulus funds are counted, the total number of jobs rises to a bit more than 64,000.

That sounds good, but as the AP story noted, the majority of the jobs saved by the stimulus are those of teachers in the state's public education system. A large block of the created jobs are in government projects such as construction on military bases. Educating the young and bolstering our defense infrastructure are worthy endeavors. On the other hand, neither is likely to lead to the creation of jobs in the state's private sector anytime soon. That is, quite frankly, a narrowly focused jolt of stimulus.

What will improve the jobs outlooks is giving small and medium business access to capital on which they can earn a profit. The current uncertainty regarding taxes and regulations out of Washington, D.C., however, is making businesses wary of making the long-term economic commitments needed for true job preservation and creation..

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