Auditor questions claims of ‘saved’ state jobs

SACRAMENTO
November 23, 2009 12:01pm

How many jobs did $726.8 million in federal stimulus money dumped into the California prison system actually save?

Perhaps not as many as the state claims, says state Auditor Elaine Howle in a report to the governor and Legislature Monday.

The money was used to pay the salaries for 18,229 correctional officers in May and June.

The state has told the Obama Administration that those were jobs saved.

But Ms. Howle wonders.

“Based on our preliminary review, we believe that Corrections may have overstated how many jobs it retained when it reported its 18,229 figure to the federal government,” she says.

The federal government defines jobs retained as an existing position that would not have been continued to be filled were it not for Recovery Act funding, she notes.

“Corrections had issued 3,655 layoff notices on May 15, 2009, roughly one week before it received its first $450 million in stabilization funds. Various media reports indicated that Corrections issued between 1,300 and 1,450 additional layoff notices in August 2009, bringing its total layoff notices to approximately 5,000.

“As a result, the total number of layoff notices Corrections issued is less than one‑third of the 18,229 figure that it reported to the federal government as jobs retained,” the state auditor says.

“It appears that Corrections simply reported how many correctional officers’ salaries were paid with Recovery Act funding, regardless of whether these positions were truly at risk of being eliminated without federal funding,” she says.