PALM CITY, FL -- Martin County’s future Indian Street Bridge is the biggest stimulus project in Florida.
With a budget of more than $60 million, it holds the promise of easing traffic and generating more than 2,000 new jobs.
But so far it’s generated just one job: Kevin Stepanick's.
"Oh it’s exciting knowing you’re the one getting it all together at the beginning," said Stepanick, project administrator for the future Indian Street Bridge.
Stepanick sits in a Palm City office building off of Martin Downs Blvd. His firm has rented the first floor of the building, but at the moment every desk sits empty, except his.
Over the next few weeks he plans to hire an office staff, but with the bridge still in its design phase he says those hundreds of construction jobs may not come together until next spring.
"April, May, possibly earlier, but that’s where it sits right now," said Stepanick.
A look at the federal government’s
website shows the stimulus money and new jobs are flowing into communities by trickles rather than floods.
Along with Kevin’s position, the website shows Martin County has 19 stimulus jobs, 15 of those to help create oyster reefs to clean the St. Lucie River.
It lists roughly 37 stimulus jobs in neighboring St. Lucie County, including 6 Ft. Pierce police officers who would have been laid off without the money.
And in Indian River, the county with the highest unemployment in the region, just 7 stimulus jobs, all in health care.
"I think it’s an absolute failure," said U.S. Rep. Tom Rooney, the Republican congressman for Florida's 16th District. "The stimulus was passed under the guise of keeping unemployment under 8%. And here we are nationally it’s over 10% and in Florida and in parts of my district, St. Lucie County, it’s north of 15%."
Opponents of the stimulus, including Rooney, point to the slow pace of job growth as a sign the strategy’s not working.
They even criticize the government’s website, redesigned at a cost of $18 million and fraught with inaccuracies. According to Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers, the website includes 6 fictitious congressional districts in Florida tied to jobs that don’t exist.
"They can’t even get the simple things right and we’re supposed to have the confidence on how the rest of the stimulus is being spent," said Rooney.
As for Kevin Stepanick, stimulus employee number 1 on the state’s biggest project, he says he’s grateful. Without the federal support the Indian Street Bridge might not be built, and he would have to move his family to find work.
"This has kept me at home," said Stepanick.
