Poor swath of conservative, anti-stimulus SC didn’t want the money, but it’s working

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In anti-stimulus SC, money is making a difference

AIKEN, S.C. — A majority of people in South Carolina didn’t vote for Barack Obama and many didn’t want any part of his stimulus cash, and folks in a particularly poor, hard-hit swath near the Georgia line were no exception. Until the money showed up.

About $1.6 billion was used to create 3,100 temporary jobs in a rural corner of the state cleaning up the Savannah River Site, which already employed about 9,000 and churned out radioactive metals for the nation’s nuclear arsenal during the Cold War.

“I am convinced it’s what kept Aiken’s economy stronger than most communities during these poor economic times,” said David Jamison, president of the chamber of commerce in that solidly Republican city just north of the nuclear facility. “I think it has worked exactly like the way Washington had in mind. … I see it every single day.”

Indeed, opposition to the president and the stimulus were fierce in traditionally conservative South Carolina, which Republican John McCain carried comfortably in the 2008 presidential election. GOP Gov. Mark Sanford led angry residents in the charge to keep stimulus money for education out of the state, saying it would ultimately leave the economy in worse shape when the money dries up next year.

So far, though, that chunk of the $787 billion appears to be doing what the president promised: keep unemployment rates already among the highest in the nation from skyrocketing and give residents some hope that they could fight through the worst economic decline since the Great Depression.

The recession has wiped out 8.2 million U.S. jobs, making competition for openings fierce. On average, there are five or six unemployed people competing for each opening, according to government data.

That image is sharp in South Carolina, where unemployment in March was 12.2 percent, the sixth-highest in the country, according to Labor Department figures released Friday. Near Savannah River, Allendale County had the state’s second-highest jobless rate at 22.4 percent. Two other nearby counties, Barnwell and Bamberg, were 19.9 percent and 17.7 percent in February.

The new hires came from a broad area including parts of South Carolina and Georgia, and unemployment rates have continued to creep upward even since the positions were filled. It was unlikely the jobs would strongly impact rates in any single county, but Obama has said the recession would have been worse without the stimulus and jobs like those at Savannah River.

The cost? Around $500,000 per job — but that money covers overhead and other costs at the site.

Thousands of applicants flocked to job fairs and waited hours in the hot sun for a chance to speak with Savannah River recruiters. To one of those new employees, it wasn’t just a job opportunity — it was a saving grace.

Bob McClearen worked at Savannah River for 18 years until he was laid off in 1997, working on company presentations and business development. McClearen then struggled for more than a decade to make ends meet, opening a shipping store with his brother-in-law until that business closed last year because of the recession.

Scrambling to pay the mortgage on the shuttered store, McClearen said he jumped at the opportunity to return to Savannah River when a friend still onsite told him about the new jobs. Now, McClearen is a technical editor, helping engineers plan cleanup efforts for the reactors and making sure photographs are taken before and after the work.

“To me, this is home,” McClearen said. “Some people are half-empty, half-full people. I’m just glad to have a glass with something in it.”

Megan Elliott had just graduated from college when she learned about the new positions. Now, she sees her job doing communications for Savannah River as a resume-builder. The 26-year-old had sent her resume to companies from New York to California before being hired in June 2009.

“I was just kind of floating from temporary job to temporary job,” Elliott said. “As tough as it was for already employed individuals, it was also tough getting your foot in the door as a recent graduate.”

McClearen and Elliott might owe their jobs to the stimulus, but several prominent anti-stimulus voices envision a more dire outcome.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, who didn’t support the stimulus and has called the effort a failure, said he’s worried the massive influx of cash won’t be properly managed. He also has warned of looming higher taxes that he says could shutter the businesses the package was supposed to help.

“The fact that the stimulus created some economic activity in that area is a good thing,” Graham said.

However, he said, “I worry about, has this money been absorbed in a rational process? Is it going to projects that are worthy?”

Dennis Saylor, who chairs local Republican efforts in Aiken County, said he supports any growth at Savannah River but wishes the current expansion were more permanent.

“Aiken County was strongly against President Obama, but we are benefiting from his administration right now through some of the stimulus money,” Saylor says. “I just wish it was a better funded source as opposed to newly printed money.”

Meanwhile, at Jess Walker’s Carolina Bar-B-Que, as many as 800 people line up every day for pulled pork, hash and rice at his family owned restaurant just miles from Savannah River’s gates.

Business here has always been brisk since Walker opened in 1969. But Walker said his stream of customers has managed to stay steady even during the darkest of economic times, an even keel he attributes to the employees doing stimulus-funded work at Savannah River.

“Without the plant, we wouldn’t be here,” he said, as customers began to fill his restaurant. “It’s the reason we even exist.”