L.A.: $111M in Stimulus Saved Just 55 Jobs

This FOX News article shows the waste of taxpayers and their children's money to shore up the Democrat union base. Nothing in the article says where the money actually went or whether or not the projects were completed. $2 million per job is a mite bit expensive in my book, but then I'm not a politician using OPM.

I was an auditor back in the 60's and spent some time auditing one of JFK's antipoverty boondoggles on the lower East Side of Manhattan. I commented at the time that there was no proof that any of the children in the program were better off at the end of the grant than before. If they had given each child $1 million, they would have been far better off and the program would have cost the taxpayer half. That is the way government works.

I had to laugh at the B- Wendy gave LA in using the funds to create jobs. Even Obama gave himself a B+.

Article: More than a year after Congress approved $800 billion in stimulus funds, the Los Angeles city controller has released a 40-page report on how the city spent its share, and the results are not living up to expectations.

"I'm disappointed that we've only created or retained 55 jobs after receiving $111 million," said Wendy Greuel, the city's controller. "With our local unemployment rate over 12 percent we need to do a better job cutting red tape and putting Angelenos back to work."

According to the audit, the Los Angeles Department of Public Works spent $70 million in stimulus funds -- in return, it created seven private sector jobs and saved seven workers from layoffs. Taxpayer cost per job: $1.5 million.

The Los Angeles Department of Transportation created even fewer jobs per dollar, spending $40 million but netting just nine jobs. Taxpayer cost per job: $4.4 million.

Greuel blamed the dismal numbers on several factors:

1. Bureaucratic red tape: Four highway projects did not even go out to bid until seven months after they were authorized.

2. Projects that were supposed to be competitively bid in the private sector went instead went to city workers.

3. Stimulus money was not properly tracked within departments

4. Both departments could not report the jobs created and retained in a timely fashion..

"I would say maybe in a grade, a B- in creating the jobs," Greuel told Fox News. "They have started to spend those dollars but it took seven months to get some of those contracts out. We think in the city that we should move quickly and not in the same usual bureaucratic ways."

L.A.: $111M in Stimulus Saved Just 55 Jobs