Gov. Jim Doyle announced Tuesday the state sent a report to the federal government Saturday detailing the progress of Wisconsin’s stimulus spending through the end of September.
“The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is providing Wisconsin communities great opportunities to create jobs and make lasting improvements and we want to assure Wisconsin citizens that the funds are spent wisely,” Doyle said in a statement Tuesday.
The progress report is required by the federal government for the purposes of accountability and transparency, according to the statement, because this amount of federal funding is unprecedented. The reports outline the use of stimulus funds in the state, measure job creation and maintenance, and make sure funds were spent appropriately.
According to a report from the Wisconsin Office of Recovery and Reinvestment, the state has received 287 stimulus awards totaling $1.92 billion. Of that amount, the state has spent about $680 million during this first quarter of reporting.
The report also said the state retained and created about 8,200 jobs this quarter as a direct result of stimulus funding, with more than 6,100 of those jobs being government jobs. The state has also retained and created approximately 22,100 jobs with stimulus money thus far, which is about 30 percent of the 70,000-job goal.
Education has received the most recovery funding out of any state agency thus far, with more than $951 million dollars awarded. Transportation and infrastructure projects received less than half of that — $399 million — while energy programs received nearly $217 million.
Funding also went toward 23 homeless prevention projects, which provided 476 people with assistance, according to the report.
The report showed county funding varied throughout the state, with counties in the eastern half of the state, including Dane County, receiving more than $24 million.
Also included in the report are current unemployment numbers by county. Menominee County, in Northwestern Wisconsin, had the highest rate with 17.8 percent of the population unemployed. Dane County’s unemployment rate is 5.8 percent.
In a joint statement released Tuesday, Wisconsin Legislature Joint Finance Committee Co-Chairs Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and Sen. Mark Miller, D-Monona, said they were pleased with the job creation reports.
“These early figures are encouraging,” Miller said in the statement. “When you add in the number of jobs created as these dollars circulate through our communities, the recovery investment is having an impact.”
The statement also said the JFC has approved $3.7 billion so far for projects involving stimulus funding.
Rep. Robin Vos, R-Racine, a member of the JFC, said even though the stimulus funding is supposed to create 70,000 jobs total and Wisconsin spent millions of dollars, he is disconcerted to see the state only created and retained about 8,000 jobs this quarter.
“This is a clear example something preliminary but disappointing,” Vos said. “[It] shows the Democrats’ plan to increase taxes and cut funding is totally wrong, but maybe it will get better in the next six months.”
