Rob:  Well, so far Oklahoma has spent over half of the three billion federal stimulus dollars allocated for our state, money that has certainly come in handy, whether or not you agree with the policy surrounding it.  I sat down with Jim East, the former TULSA TRIBUNE editor and writer turned consultant, who is now working to attract stimulus dollars into our state.  Jim, where would we be if Oklahoma had not received the federal stimulus and recovery dollars?
Jim East:  The budget crisis that we are going to face next year with the FY eleven state budget is not going to be as bad because of stimulus.  It has helped us tremendously in this current budget year.  So, in effect, we’ve been putting off the inevitable.  It gave us a huge cushion as it relates to the recessionary activities that are going on in the country.  It’s hard to say exactly where we would be, but what I can say is the majority of the eight thousand or so jobs that are listed on the stimulus reports, the vast majority are ones that have been retained.  So if they had not been retained, I’m not an economist so I can’t tell you what the unemployment rate would be if those people had lost their jobs, but it would definitely be higher than what we have today.
Rob:  So less about creating new jobs and more about retaining the jobs that we need and we have.
Jim:  That’s correct.  I think that there were some new jobs created, but by and far when you look at the amount of money that came in, most of it went to common schools and that money was used to retain those teachers, primarily I think in rural areas, but also in the metros.
Rob:  Do you see a second stimulus coming down the pike?
Jim:  No.  It’s possible, but I think that because only about a fourth of the current stimulus bill has actually been allocated and spent, we’re so far away from finally dispersing that money, I can’t understand why we would go to a second stimulus.  That said, there are some people that were left out of the first stimulus or didn’t receive as much money as they hoped; and I would think about school construction money which was left out and roads, rail, barges that got a lot less money than they had hoped for.  Those are two places where I think there’s going to be a lot of discussion.
Rob:  What would you say to the people that fundamentally, from a political standpoint, would disagree with those federal dollars coming into the state?
Jim:  I think that you always have to be cautious about having just federal stimulus, or state stimulus, or local stimulus; it needs to be a balance.  But I think the fact that the money is coming, we need to be able to use it particularly for those most vulnerable in our state, those individuals that don’t have the means to put food on the table every night, the people that are out of work that need additional unemployment insurance.  I think some of those things are critical to keep our state afloat; that’s what I, I’d ask them to talk to those individuals.  Has it created a tremendous amount of jobs some people had talked about?  Not yet, maybe never.  I can’t say for sure.  But I know it’s had a huge impact on some of those most vulnerable in our state.