Monroe County: Fun With Numbers

And the Flu Too!

The office of Monroe County Executive Maggie Brooks has released economic development numbers for 2006. The statistics are as slanted and misleading as those used in her State of the County address:

In 2006, County-sponsored programs approved incentives for 132 local economic development projects. These projects will create 1,857 new jobs (within five years of project completion), retain 9,688 jobs, and invest $373,868,000 in Monroe County.

Since Brooks took office in 2004, Monroe County has helped 385 companies improve and expand their local operations. These companies are creating 6,900 new jobs, retaining over 28,000 jobs, and investing more than $1 Billion in our local economy.

We refuted many of these claims in our response to the State of the County. The short story is that, according to the US Department of Labor, jobs are actually down since Maggie took office.

Also, the "385 companies" assisted by the County is inaccurate. There were 385 instances of incentives given, but many of these were repeat recipients.

As far as taking credit for creating jobs five years down the road that may never actually materialize - we are not impressed.

The County is also up to old scare tactics to make it appear as though our government is actually needed. Officials have asked for 500 volunteers to participate in a pandemic flu point-of-dispensing exercise. Go to podex.info to sign up.

Unfortunately, Brooks cannot take credit for creating jobs with this exercise as participants will not be paid. Although, using her math . . .