A report released by Gov. Jan Brewer’s office in October understates the impact stimulus money allocated by the state has had on Arizona’s job creation and retention, an ASU economist said.

Dennis Hoffman, an economics professor at the W. P. Carey School of Business, said the report, which says that 9,758 jobs were created or retained because of stimulus money, does not account for indirect jobs, stimulus for Arizona’s Medicaid or the amount given directly to local Arizona governments.

“When you inject a dollar from Washington into this state to support a job, that job ends up supporting other jobs in the state because it sustains spending, helps keep people in their homes, helps keep people buying goods and products from local businesses,” he said. “It’s a very important injection at this particular point in time.”

The Brewer administration made no mistakes in its report and compiled it accurately, but the stimulus money has probably had a broader impact on Arizona jobs, Hoffman said.

“I believe the report is accurate … but that particular accounting, in my opinion, understates the positive impact that this stimulus injection has had upon the state,” he said

Tasya Peterson, a spokeswoman for Brewer’s Office of Economic Recovery, said it remains to be seen what kind of effect these jobs have on the economy.

“Obviously almost 10,000 jobs is going to help in this economic climate, but I think we still got a ways to go on recovery,” she said. “Like Gov. Brewer has said, this stimulus money will not come close to mitigating the budget crisis but it does help. Every time somebody is employed, it helps a family.”

Peterson said nearly 80 percent of the jobs created and retained, about 7,734 jobs, were education related, which shows that education funding is high on Brewer’s list of priorities.

“Throughout the budget session and the special session, [Brewer] showed that she was going to protect education and not cut [it] significantly,” Peterson said. “So it’s very important to the governor to be funding education at a very high level.”

While he understands people’s concerns about the government’s role, Hoffman said the last time government tried doing nothing the Great Depression happened.

“We’re going to have tough times, so we’re going to have 10 percent unemployment maybe for the next year,” he said. “Without [the stimulus money] — people have to understand this — we might be looking at 20 or 30 percent unemployment.”

Finance junior Tiberiu Oprisiu said he doesn’t think 9,758 jobs justify the stimulus money when Arizona is projected to lose nearly 180,000 jobs in 2009 alone, according to an employment forecast released in October by the Arizona Department of Commerce.

“If we’re only able to keep that amount of jobs going, then that money would have been better spent somewhere else, probably because the economy is eventually going to improve,” he said. “So take the money and figure out a different way to use it to help the economy or all of us as a whole.”

Reach the reporter at salvador.rodriguez@asu.edu.