ST. LOUIS (KMOX) -- Millions of dollars worth of federal stimulus money is supposed to be rolling through the St. Louis economy, creating jobs. But it's hard to get an answer to the question of how many jobs are being created.
Accodring to best estimates, there are 166 stimulus projects in St. Louis, with over $2.3 billion in funding, which are supposed to create or sustain thousands of jobs, many of them in construction. But not even St. Louis City Mayor Francis Slay has a handle on the direct jobs benefits. When asked about the total dollar amount for stimulus spending in St. Louis, Slay said he hasn't "done the math."
Slay says the big projects locally include fixing the flood wall, road improvements, money for public schools and crime prevention. "I think that all of them put together help to create a critical mass for new jobs, stabilization and infrastructure improvements," Slay said.
As far as oversight goes, Slay said the city has set up a website to help the public keep track of the projects on line (http://stlouis.missouri.org/recovery/). But a quick check of the website finds few if any mentions of jobs created or saved; one entry cites 50 police officer jobs. The total dollar amounts allocated to some projects also seem to be inexact, when it comes to monies promised versus monies received and to which agency.
For example, the city's website shows one entry for the "St. Louis Public Schools" listing approx. $394,000 in grants. A second entry for the "St. Louis Public School District" shows about $8.6 million in stimulus funding. But the federal website, www.recovery.gov, has an entry for the "Board of Education of the City of St. Louis" which indicates more than $43 million has already been awarded.
Mayor Slay is not the only one having trouble pinpointing the effects of stimulus spending. This week the government's website has come under increasing fire for its book-keeping ability. The public funding watchdogs at the Show-Me Institute say in some cases www.recovery.gov lists money as being spent, in Missouri congressional districts that don't exist, like the 14th District ($617,848), the 00 District ($136,833), the 31st District ($74,542), and the 16th District ($28,453). Missouri only has 9 official congressional districts (click here for recovery.gov spending by district summary). According to the website WatchDog.org, a total of $6.4 billion has been spent in 440 fictitious congressional districts.
The Show-Me Institute's Audrey Spalding says data on even the legitimate entries are riddled with ommissions. "In pretty much any field that you look, there are inconsistencies and even question marks and written notes to recovery.gov that say 'We don't know what we're supposed to enter here.'"
A Recovery Board spokesman says that's because the recipients have to enter that information, and some don't know the answers. The board tells Congress it's working to fix the errors.
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