[Illustration by ALEX FINE]
DAILY NEWS: Federal records show that more than a billion dollars from President Obama’s $787 billion economic-stimulus program has been targeted for Philadelphia. But the typical job created here is just as likely to require a lab coat as a hard hat, as much of the money has gone for university research projects. Meanwhile, city government, which has been financially ravaged by the recession, has gotten relatively little help from the stimulus program, and then mostly in indirect ways, like payments to citizens that bump tax revenues, or money to accelerate already-planned capital projects. In the main, Mayor Nutter and his team have been left struggling to maintain basic city services on their own. But perhaps the biggest disappointment is one that afflicts the stimulus program everywhere: It takes so long for federal money to get where it’s intended that much of the impact hasn’t been felt. So far, roughly 3,500 jobs are credited locally to the stimulus as of Sept. 30, based on data provided to the government by local agencies and Daily News reporting. Not exactly a giant number in a city with an estimated labor force of 659,000. MORE