Stimulus brought 18K Utah jobs, $1.9B for projects

WASHINGTON — The White House said Wednesday that the 1-year-old federal stimulus law created or saved 18,000 jobs in Utah and made available $1.9 billion for projects ranging from renovating highways to replacing the Dinosaur National Monument visitor center and removing uranium tailings near Moab.

"One year later, it is largely thanks to the recovery act that a second depression is no longer a possibility," President Barack Obama said as he released data about stimulus effects nationwide.

While he said the stimulus kept up to 2 million people on the job nationally, he acknowledged to millions of others who are out of work and losing patience, "It doesn't yet feel like much of a recovery."

Marking the anniversary of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Obama said, "There has never been a program of this scale, moved at this speed, that has been enacted as effectively and as transparently."

The United States has lost an astounding 8.4 million jobs since this recession began in December 2007, but Obama said it would have been even worse without the stimulus. Vice President Joe Biden, who has led stimulus implementation, took a swipe at critics, saying, "They're unwilling to step up. Well, not us."

The White House released data about how it figures the package has helped Utah, including:

 Creating or saving 18,000 Utah jobs, according to analysis by the White House Council of Economic Advisers.

 Making available $1.9 billion for projects and services in Utah, and more than $1.1 billion has already been spent.

 Helping fund 125 transportation projects in Utah, costing more than $371 million. Some of the larger projects using stimulus funding include widening Syracuse Road between 1000 West and 2000 West in Syracuse, adding lanes to I-15 between 7200 South and 10000 South in Salt Lake County, and resurfacing I-80 between Echo Junction and Emory.

Some key infrastructure projects include replacing the Quarry Visitor Center at Dinosaur National Monument. The old visitor center, which protected a cliff of carefully exposed fossils, had been condemned for years as unsafe.