According to Recovery.gov as of October 30, 2009 the state of Florida spent $6,811,579,599.00 and saved 29,322.78 jobs.

Using my trusty calculator that means Governor Crist and our Repbulican legislature spent $232,296.51 per job saved. I am not sure if Governor Crist will accuse me of "calculator abuse" or not but that seems like a lot of money to save a job. It appears Florida, from the Recovery.com data, did not create any jobs. However, we do know Florida has lost 360,000 jobs and had an unemployment rate of 11% in September or 1.2% higher than the nation.

When you look at the details you find that .06% (1,648.96) jobs were saved by issuing contracts or loans. While 94.4% (27,673.82) were saved by issuing grants. Interestingly 25 whole jobs were saved by loans in the amount of $13,484,722.00. Wow, those loans saved 25 jobs at a cost of $539,388.88 per job. I wonder who holds those 25 saved jobs?

I clicked on the map of Florida in my area of Sarasota County and found that there were 31 recipients awarded stimulus money who created/saved 39.43 jobs. These 31 recipients were given $59,974,607.00 to deliver meals. That's $1,521,039.99 per job saved.

Are you seeing the madness of this kind of spending?

When you go to the Florida Office of Economic Recovery website and click on jobs you will find some very telling information but no data. For example you find that $1.4 million was spent on "Senior Employment". According to the website:

These [$1.4M in] funds are to be used to support additional training and employment opportunities for unemployed low-income seniors and expand the number of SCSEP participants assigned to community service work. The wages paid to these low-income seniors must provide a direct stimulus to the economies of local communities, which will also benefit from the community service work performed by SCSEP participants. This would equate to 20 hours per week at the Florida minimum wage of $7.21 per hour.

Under the category "Workforce Employment and Training" you will find $165.01 spent. The money was allocated as follows:

Formula distribution for grants: $19.6M adult job training; $43.3M summer youth programs; $81.4M dislocated worker program; $20.6M for job placement assistance. Most of the funds are distributed to Regional Workforce Boards and have a local impact.

These workforce employment and training funds provided under the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA) serve adults, youth, and dislocated workers (workers who have lost their jobs due to a business/plant closure or layoff). The WIA funds are primarily formula allocated to the state’s 24 regional workforce boards where services are delivered through a network of local one-stop career centers.

Most of the funding (62.5%) must be spent to provide Re-Employment Services for customers who are receiving unemployment compensation benefits. So most must be used for unemployment benefits. Most of the remainder of the money is for job training. How does that creat jobs?

Under "Vocational Rehabilitation State Grants" $32.16 million has been allocated to the Department of Education. Under "State & Local Projects" the $0.39 million allocated is "preserving 27 positions in the nonprofit arts sector in 12 counties. Each county received $25,000 in pass-through funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Recovery Act program."

The vast majority of Recovery Act monies have been used to prop up government programs such as $3.367 billion for Medicaid.

There is no easy way for citizens to see how our hard earned money is being used in Florida. I suggest you ask your State Senator or Representative to give you an accounting.