If passed in Congress, the Obama administration’s stimulus package will create or save 99,000 jobs over the next two years in Virginia, according to a White House press release issued yesterday.
The White House issued a “fact sheet” delineating the impact of its stimulus, known as the “American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan,” for every state in the union.
The plan “is a nationwide effort to create jobs, jumpstart growth and transform our economy for the 21st century,” according to the statement. It will “help businesses create jobs and families afford their bills while laying a foundation for future economic growth in key areas like health care, clean energy, education and a 21st century infrastructure.”
According to the fact sheet, the 99,000 jobs that will be created or saved in Virginia “will be in a range of industries from clean energy to health care, with over 90 percent in the private sector.”
It cites an economic study conducted by Romer and Bernstein issued last month.
Further, the stimulus package will provide “a making work pay tax cut of up to $1,000 for three million workers and their families,” according to the statement. “The plan will make a down payment on the President’s Making Work Pay tax cut for 95 percent of workers and their families, designed to pay out immediately into workers’ paychecks.”
Some 71,000 families will be eligible for a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to make college affordable, the report stated, adding, “By creating a new $2,500 partially refundable tax credit for four years of college, this plan will give 3.8 million families nationwide, and 71,000 families in Virginia, new assistance to put college within their reach.”
The stimulus package offers an additional $100 per month in unemployment insurance benefits to 247,000 workers in Virginia who have lost their jobs in the current recession, and provides extended unemployment benefits to an additional 46,000 laid-off workers.
It provides funding sufficient to modernize at least 165 schools in Virginia to augment labs, classrooms and libraries.
Over the longer term, it will double renewable energy generating capacity over three years, creating enough renewable energy to power six million U.S. homes. It will computerize every American’s health records in five years, reducing medical errors and saving billions in health care costs. It will launch the most ambitious school modernization program on record, sufficient to upgrade over 10,000 schools. It will enact the largest investment increase in our nation’s roads, bridges and mass transit systems since the creation of the national highway system in the 1950s.
In a related development, a measure co-sponsored by Virginia Sen. Jim Webb to spur lagging automotive sales was approved in the U.S. Senate as an amendment to the stimulus bill. It makes interest payments on car loans and state sales or excise car taxes deductible for new cars purchased between Nov. 12, 2008 and Dec. 31, 2009, to help more Americans afford cars and spur investment in the ailing auto industry.
Individuals with incomes up to $125,000 and couples earning up to $250,000 would qualify. It is estimated that a couple would save about $1,553 on a new $25,000 car.
