New Jersey Entrepreneur

Almost 20,000 state-created or retained jobs reported in New Jersey through American

Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding

Governor Jon S. Corzine today announced the release of the first quarterly report on American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds received and expended through September 30, 2009. Of the nearly $3.2 billion reportable awarded amount, $2.8 billion has resulted in job creation programs to date. The nearly $310 million expended to date has resulted in the creation or retention of almost 20,000 jobs for New Jersey residents. These figures do not include jobs indirectly created or induced.

Additionally, more than $400 million have been awarded to New Jersey by federal funding agencies and are in the programmatic planning stages. These funds will flow through various projects throughout the state and continue to foster economic growth and job creation.

“It’s clear that our early action on a recovery plan and our strong partnership with the Obama administration created and saved vital jobs during the worst global economic crisis in decades,” Governor Corzine said. “While data show that these critical investments have helped us begin to see the end of the path of this crisis, we will continue to work around the clock until everyone in our State who wants and needs a job has a strong stable job.

“This first quarterly report for New Jersey represents many months of work in aggressively pursuing maximum ARRA funding for our state and its citizens. In doing so, we have ensured accountability and transparency of funds through state level agencies as well as through our Recovery Accountability Taskforce.”

The data released today was submitted to the federal government in draft form on October 10, 2009 in accordance with federal law. It was then reviewed by New Jersey as well as by the federal funding agencies.

The information will be found on the federal ARRA website, _www.recovery.gov <http://www.recovery.gov/>_ and will be linked on New Jersey’s recovery website at www.nj.gov/recovery/ <http://www.nj.gov/recovery/>

The funds reported represent merely a portion of all ARRA funds received and expended in New Jersey to date. Funds not reportable include hundreds of millions of dollars of stimulus funds spent in increased Medicaid funding, unemployment insurance funding, and many other funds which go to support New Jersey families such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).