Where’s the Job Report, Governor?

Last week, Governor Patrick and his administration claimed federal stimulus money provided to the Bay State “created or retained” 23,533 jobs in Massachusetts since February. As you may recall, The Capitol View reported that the Patrick Administration neglected to provide any kind of report to back up that claim. According to State House News Service, “Administration officials later were unable to provide estimates of how many jobs were created and how many were preserved, or of how many were public-sector jobs and how many were in the private sector. A spokeswoman for stimulus infrastructure czar Jeffrey Simon said the data were not available. “Since we weren’t required to have that breakdown, we don’t readily have that breakdown,” spokeswoman Alethea Pieters said.” In the same article, SHNS reported that a formal report would be filed on Friday. That was more than a week ago, and still no report!

Not that we’re surprised, we certainly are disappointed though to not have any research to substantiate the Governor’s claim. How do we know the administration is being honest with the Massachusetts public? First of all, there’s no report to back it up. Secondly, according to an article by the Associated Press, “The inflated job count is at least partly the product of the administration instructing local community agencies that received money to count the raises as jobs saved.” That just doesn’t pass the smell test!

Today, we call on Governor Patrick to provide that report. It is about time this administration start backing up the random announcements and press releases. Without a report, there is no way to know if the federal stimulus money has had any effect on the state’s job preservation and growth.