Patrick cites state’s gains as cuts loom
Focus is on jobs saved by $1.9b stimulus aid
Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday that Massachusetts had created or retained 23,533 jobs as a result of spending $1.9 billion in federal stimulus money over the past eight months, an announcement that precedes what is expected to be a dire set of budget cuts to be outlined by the governor this afternoon.
“In Massachusetts, the recovery act is working,’’ Patrick said at a press conference in his State House office, surrounded by labor union officials, state lawmakers, and Cabinet members. “To be clear, many, many challenges remain. . . . It’s still a crisis in many respects. But this is a hopeful sign and further confirmation we’re moving in the right direction.’’
Patrick is planning to announce a series of budget reductions this afternoon in Worcester. The current budget gap, created by revenue shortfalls greater than state officials predicted when they approved this fiscal year’s budget this summer, is estimated to be about $600 million.
The governor plans to close that gap by cutting state jobs and programs and could also propose cuts to local aid. The governor gave no hint yesterday of what would be cut, and he sought instead to focus on the jobs created by the stimulus bill.
“It’s incredibly difficult,’’ Patrick said of making the cuts. “It’s not that it’s difficult as a math or an accounting problem; I know how to do that . . .. It’s difficult because I know there’s a face or a family behind every one of those decisions.’’
The 23,533 individual jobs created or retained amount to 8,792 full-time positions, according to the administration’s calculations. The positions are overwhelmingly those of teachers, Patrick said, but they include firefighters, police officers, and construction workers.
In addition, the Patrick administration estimates that there have been 11,767 jobs indirectly created or retained by the infusion of federal dollars. To calculate indirect jobs - the pizza shop that hires more workers, for example, when a large construction site opens nearby - the state used a multiplier of 1.5, meaning three new pizza shop jobs for every two construction site jobs.
The job figures are reflected in the first of a series of quarterly reports that states are required to file with the federal government by tomorrow.
In all, Massachusetts expects to receive $14 billion in federal stimulus funds. About $6.1 billion of that will be under the control of various state agencies; the remainder will be distributed to residents via tax breaks or to private businesses, nonprofits, or municipalities via grants.
State officials so far have authorized spending $1.9 billion out of $4 billion that the federal government has provided. They expect the federal government to provide $2 billion more, to be spent over the 27-month period that the stimulus bill covers.
The $787 billion stimulus project, approved by Congress in February, has been attacked by opponents as not providing the desired effect of easing the country’s dour financial picture or cutting the unemployment rate.
In Massachusetts, where the unemployment rate is the highest it has been in decades, Patrick has been criticized for the slow pace of stimulus spending. Last month, a powerful congressman publicly chided Patrick for not spending more swiftly nearly a half-billion dollars in transportation funding.
US Representative James L. Oberstar, chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, sent a letter to Patrick saying the state had committed only 23 percent of its highway stimulus money, ranking 49th in the nation.
Patrick vigorously challenged that report, and his administration has made a major point in recent weeks of announcing stimulus success stories. Yesterday, state officials posted the latest jobs estimate on the state website as a “Citizen’s Update.’’
Still, transportation is one area where the state appears to have been slower to spend money than in other categories. The report details $273 million that had been awarded so far, but only $16.2 million spent. An additional $111.8 million has been committed under contracts, according to the report, which included all projects by Sept. 30.
Jennifer Nassour, chairwoman of the Massachusetts Republican Party, called yesterday’s report “one more example of the Patrick-Murray administration’s use of smoke and mirrors to mask the Democrats’ costly $787 billion stimulus bill.’’
“The reality for many citizens in the Commonwealth whose jobs have not been ‘retained’ is that they join the 32,000 people in our state who have become unemployed since President Obama signed the stimulus package,’’ she said in a statement.
Earlier this year, the Obama administration estimated that the stimulus bill would save or create 79,000 jobs in Massachusetts over the next two years.
Yesterday, administration officials said they hope to exceed that estimate and are on pace to do so.
“There’s a lot more work to do, but this program has been an absolute success,’’ said state Representative David Linsky, a Natick Democrat and the chairman of the House Committee on Post Audit and Oversight. “The single most valuable commodity right now in Massachusetts is a job.’’
Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com. 
