Despite Oregon’s budget cuts, Multnomah County makes room for more than 100 additional employees this fiscal year.
Multnomah County’s 2010-2011 budget that went into effect July 1 included money for 142.3 additional full-time-equivalent positions.
In contrast, nearby Washington and Clackamas counties lost 26 and 28 jobs respectively.
What’s going on? County Chairman Jeff Cogen on Wednesday called the job expansion a “good news story.” For one thing, he said, more than 100 of the jobs were paid for using federal and state dollars and new employees are staffing much-needed programs.
“I understand how people could say, ‘Why are they adding jobs at a bad time?'” he said.
But the Obama administration’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (more commonly known as the stimulus program) is paying for 105 jobs, many at a new health clinic in Gresham’s impoverished Rockwood neighborhood, and others to create health- programs, he said.
Read more at OregonLive.com.
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