PORT HAS FEWER MARITIME JOBS AFTER EXPANSION; AGENCY SAYS OK

[Sherman A1]

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) - A Mississippi Gulf Coast port has fewer maritime jobs now than it did before a $570 million restoration and expansion project funded by a federal grant.

But the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development says the state is complying with job-creation requirements. The Sun Herald reports Republican Gov. Phil Bryant is calling the project a success.

Mississippi Development Authority pledged to create 1,300 full-time maritime jobs at the Port of Gulfport in exchange for money HUD provided for economic development after Hurricane Katrina, which struck in 2005 and damaged the port.

HUD had long questioned whether the port was meeting job goals, but said in a June 25 letter to MDA Executive Director Glenn McCullough that the concerns have been satisfied.

http://www.mpbonline.org/blogs/news/2019/07/03/port-has-fewer-maritime-jobs-after-expansion-agency-says-ok/

This sounds very much like the Reagan era "Ketchup is a Vegetable" method of accounting.

[elleng]

1. 'HUD provided for economic development after Hurricane Katrina, which struck in 2005

and damaged the port.'

Changes in things between 2005 and today???

[KY_EnviroGuy]

2. Republicans complying with Republican shenanigans.....

This is a typical GOP-style underhanded trick:

(snip from the article)

The federal agency allowed the port to begin counting jobs Island View Casino Resort added with its own investment in a new hotel tower on port property south of U.S. 90. When the hotel jobs turned out to be too few, HUD showed the state how to recalculate the numbers so part-time hotel jobs could be converted to full-time positions based on hours worked.

The state counts 1,167 jobs at the casino hotel, bringing the total of jobs created to almost 1,500. HUD estimates 94% to 96% of the hotel jobs pay low to moderate wages. The number of higher-paying maritime jobs the port created totals only 262, which adds up to a project cost of almost $2.2 million per job.

Counting jobs that existed before the construction project started in 2008, the port has a net loss of maritime jobs. The port said at the end of March that it had retained 814 of the 1,286 maritime jobs counted in 2007.

And the deplorables fall for it every time.....