OLYMPIA — Nearly $10 billion is being funneled through the state’s economic veins from last year’s stimulus package with about $500 million coursing through the capillaries of Snohomish County.
The latest report on use of stimulus dollars shows $7.88 billion had been steered into Washington state as of Dec. 31 and spent on paving roads, paying police and teachers, caring for children and assisting businesses.
“The Recovery Act has really kept Washington state from falling off the cliff,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said Monday at a news conference called to discuss the report.
More people would be jobless, the unemployed would be worse off with less benefits, children would be learning in more crowded classrooms and police departments would have fewer officers, she said.
Not included in the update is the $590 million for rail projects awarded to the state last week. Also not in the report are funds spent by the federal government on Medicaid and the $25-a-week boost in unemployment assistance provided in the stimulus. Those two programs brought about $1.25 billion in the state by the end of last year.
Last February, the Democratic-controlled Congress passed the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. It helped states avoid laying off thousands of teachers, police and government workers, and in Washington state, it filled nearly half of a $9 billion budget hole.
Under the act, states must file quarterly reports tracking use of every dollar. That data is posted online by state and federal governments.
According to the latest report, about 14,500 jobs were created or retained statewide in the final three months of 2009.
About half of those jobs are tied to funds handled by state agencies. This included 3,283 people in the field of public safety, 1,975 in education — many of them teachers — and 690 in transportation.
In Snohomish County, there had been $216 million awarded for programs and projects linked to state agencies and another $216 million for undertakings by the county as well as cities, businesses and nonprofits.
U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., who joined Gregoire on Monday, voted for the spending bill and said it prevented greater economic damage from happening.
“We can’t be celebratory,” he said, because so many people remain out of work. “But we can be alive, and that’s what our economy is today. We have dodged the big one.”
Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623, jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
Learn more
To learn how federal stimulus money is spent in Washington, go to www.recovery.wa.gov.
To learn how Snohomish County is spending its share, go to www1.co.snohomish.wa.us.
To learn how federal stimulus is spent in other states, go to http://recovery.gov.
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