WAVE 3 TV Louisville, KY | Tracking stimulus spending in the Metro

Tracking stimulus spending in the Metro

By Janelle MacDonald - bio | email
Posted by Charles Gazaway - email

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – It's almost nine months to the day since lawmakers passed the Federal Stimulus Act and we're starting to see more and more of those recovery projects in Kentuckiana. But we are also hearing more stories around the country of errors, non-existent jobs and bogus projects. So we wanted to know how that money is being used in Kentuckiana.

Finding uses for federal stimulus money slated for Metro Louisville is not all that different than 4-year-old Kaitlyn Jackson making out her Christmas list. Only in the city's case, the presents come from Uncle Sam. And Metro Stimulus Czar Rick Johnstone gets to hand them out.

"The amount of work we'll be able to get done in a very short period of time because we have the stimulus money will almost make us whole," Johnstone said.

Among the uses so far: seven new TARC buses at a cost of $4.2 million and 140 new police cars for $4.1 million. It's not all that different from Kaitlyn's wish list.

We don't have the money to buy those vehicles," Johnstone said. "Without stimulus money, we wouldn't have been able to buy the 140-some that we're buying."

According to Johnstone, the bottom line is that all the purchases and projects will create jobs.

"This fits the recovery philosophy. The whole money is to be spent to generate into the private sector that will all be contracted work," said Johnstone.

Contracts that put people to work to build or repair $4 million to $5 million worth of sidewalks.

"It's not a problem until you're the person who trips and falls and hurts yourself on the sidewalks and then we have liabilities as a city," Johnstone explained. "So fixing those is imperative, the dollars to do that just don't exist today."

Which brings us to what many consider the most important question: how many jobs do all those dollars buy us? The Metro has created a map where you can check out stimulus project details. Click here to view it.

"It will physically show you on your street what's being done," Johnstone said.

But click on the projects highlighted on the map and in most cases you will find that the number of jobs saved or created is to be determined - even on projects that are close being finished, like painting and repairing the Dosker Manor Senior Living Center. 

Johnstone says That's because the numbers only reflect the quarter containing the months July, August and September. 

"We're into late July, mid- or late August in a lot of cases - or early September - before we hired the person," said Johnstone, adding that the technical definition of a "job" is complicated.

Who's to say what makes a job? It means different things to different people. We asked those at the unemployment office to give us their take.

"Overall, it gives you financial stability," said Ebony Holt.

"Something that pays your bills, your car payment and puts some food on the table," said Laura Metcalf.

"A job would be a job if they let you keep everything that you earn instead of taking all these taxes out," said George King, who is currently employed.

Johnstone says the federal government is clear on what it considers a job. The complicated formula it uses to define a job is not. To compute a job, the Metro has to take the total number of hours worked on stimulus projects by all workers and then divide it by 520.

That's the number of hours a full-time, 40-hour-a-week employee would work in a quarter. The resulting number is considered a full-time equivalent and that's the number of jobs the Metro can report that have been saved or created.

According to Johnstone, the Metro has reported 562 jobs created or saved so far after spending more than $31 million, but he said it may not be obvious to critics.

"We've been told from the beginning to be conservative on estimates of the jobs created because there are groups out there if we say we have five jobs working on a project, will go out and count the hard hats and say 'They're lying to you because there's only two people there.' Well they don't know we're working three shifts," Johnstone said.

Click here to view stimulus projects in other Kentuckiana counties.  

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