Oregon Public Broadcasting

A few months after the start of the financial crisis, the City of Portland passed a job creation and stimulus program. The idea was to generate jobs by accelerating construction projects around town.

Now, an audit looking into whether it worked, finds construction spending did increase - but it's not clear how many jobs were created.

Drummond Kahn is the director of the city's audit services.

Drummond Kahn: "Job creation, not just in Portland but nationally, is difficult to get a hand on because right now, most governments are using a factor, for example 12 jobs for every $1 million  spent. But it's difficult to link those jobs to specific programs or even to prove that they wouldn't have happened without stimulus money."

The stimulus package was predicted to create about 5,000 jobs. Kahn thinks about half of those may have been created so far.

The package is expected to spend about $500 million on road projects, a new bridge, a neighborhood park and housing. Work on those projects will continue through 2012.

On the Web:

Audit: Portland Job Creation and Stimulus (.PDF)