FORT PIERCE — Faced with double-digit unemployment and one of the highest rates of foreclosure in the country, St. Lucie County commissioners created a “local stimulus program” to speed up construction projects and create jobs in an economy desperate for them.

The plan included an ordinance to give local companies an edge in the bidding process and ensure that most workers involved in county projects live in St. Lucie.

But six months into the program, it’s hard to define how successful it’s been.
Economic change comes slowly, and even “fast-tracked” projects can take months to go through the design, bidding and building process. County officials, however, say their efforts have improved St. Lucie’s dire economic situation without raising taxes or increasing long-term debt.

“It’s incremental, but any jobs that we can add to the local economy absolutely has to help,” said Faye Outlaw, the county administrator.

Officials point to these milestones:

* More than 500 jobs created.

* About $48 million in projects identified, in design, under construction or completed.

* More than 50 Treasure Coast companies employed on county projects.

* At least one major road project — a $4.2 million improvement to Walton Road — bid on under the new ordinance and under construction now. In the bid, 75 percent of the workers, subcontractors and materials had to be from St. Lucie County.

St. Lucie also saw its jobless rate fall in August to 14.7 percent from 14.9 percent a month earlier. The rate remained fourth-highest among the state’s 67 counties and was higher than Martin County’s 11.5 percent and Palm Beach County’s 11.3 percent unemployment rates.

Outlaw said her budget advisers told her Friday that the county’s unemployment rate has dropped further, to 14.1 percent.

County officials began talking about a local stimulus effort early in the year. The idea was to fast-track projects through the county’s review process, use local companies for the work and avoid increasing property taxes or long-term debt to pay for it.

So far they have stuck to that goal. County commissioners kept the property tax rate the same this year as last and have paid for projects through a variety of measures, including federal stimulus dollars, grants, road bonds and county impact fees, Outlaw said.

Other projects already were budgeted for in the general fund, she said.

Some of those projects aren’t subject to the local preference ordinance because of the restrictions placed on federal or grant money, she said.

Outlaw acknowledged that improvement is hard to measure, but she said anything helps.

“If you can take one person out of the unemployment line and put them to work … to that one family it is significant,” she said.

Tags: business, construction, Fort Pierce, Local Stimulus Program, St. Lucie County, treasure coast

This entry was posted on Monday, October 5th, 2009 at 11:52 am and is filed under Economy, Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Treasure Coast business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.