Will Phantom Districts Help Pay Back Stimulus Debt?
We’ve already written about the bloated number of jobs “created or saved” by the stimulus.
But, apparently, the government has just plain lied about some of these figures. After ABC News reported that Arizona state authorities had mysteriously created jobs in districts that don’t exist, I thought I’d check to see if South Carolina’s bureaucrats have done the same.
Turns out, my assumptions were proven correct. According to the government recovery website, there were jobs created in the following districts – none of which actually exist:
| District | Jobs Created/Saved | Cost |
| 7th district
|
25 | $27.6 million |
| 16th district
|
6 | $6.5 million |
| 43rd district
|
0 | $3.1 million |
| 00 district
|
1.4 | $1.8 million |
| 45th district
|
16 | $1.1 million |
| 32nd district
|
3 | $502,011 |
| 12th district
|
1 | $149,740 |
That’s $40.75 million in stimulus money for 52.4 mystery jobs in these 7 mystery districts. That’s $777,672 per mystery job.
It’s difficult to say what is worse – that the 00 district created 1.4 jobs with $1.8 million or that it cost $3.1 million to produce 0 jobs in the nonexistent 43rd district.
Sure, human error might explain a few mistakes here and there. But we’re talking about $6.4 billion spent in 440 phantom districts. Why has nobody taken the time to double check these numbers?
State and federal officials have been preaching openness in government and accountability. But transparency is only transparent if it’s based on accurate information.
southcarolina1670
Geoff Pallay
Jameson Taylor
Jamie Cordova
SC Policy Council
kinneyet
[...] regarding the apparent funneling of stimulus dollars to non-existent congressional districts – news the Policy Council broke in South Carolina – the U.S. government has revised its data related to Recovery Act [...]
Government Stimulus Figures Still Don’t Add Up | The Palmetto Insider
November 20, 2009 at 3:54 pm
[...] the government can’t create jobs and isn’t even very good at pretending to do so. As the French economist Frederic Bastiat argues in a famous essay, everything the government does [...]
School Choice Can Create Jobs for South Carolina | The Palmetto Insider
November 25, 2009 at 10:06 am
[...] regarding the apparent funneling of stimulus dollars to non-existent congressional districts – news the Policy Council broke in South Carolina. Days later the U.S. government revised its data but the new information raised still more [...]
Eckstrom Pushes for Reform on Stimulus Job Calculations | The Palmetto Insider
December 3, 2009 at 9:21 am
[...] was broken by Rio Grande Foundation investigative reporter Jim Scarantino, and in our state by the Policy Council. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)The Best & Worst to Come: Environmental [...]
Insider Perspective | The Palmetto Insider
December 7, 2009 at 11:44 am
[...] 4, 2010 11:25 am Last month, the Policy Council reported that phantom districts were listed on the recovery.gov website as having received stimulus [...]
First, Phantom Districts; now it’s ZIP Codes | The Palmetto Insider
January 4, 2010 at 11:25 am
[...] much like when the stimulus numbers were fudged and found in phantom districts, this budget seems like more of the same from [...]
What Does Obama’s Budget Mean for South Carolina? | The Palmetto Insider
February 8, 2010 at 4:58 pm