Hoyle: where are the jobs?

Senators wanted to know Wednesday how some of North Carolina's multi-billion dollar stimulus package is going to do what it's supposed to: create jobs.

Sen. David Hoyle, a Gaston County Democrat and co-chairman of the Finance Committee, zeroed in on multi-million dollar expenditures in the package, such as daycare, Head Start and student work study programs.

"There are a lot of things in here that look like spending and not what we're trying to do: save jobs," Hoyle said to Dempsey Benton, appointed by Gov. Beverly Perdue to oversee the stimulus money. Hoyle asked if the daycare funds were for "babysitting for people who lost their jobs."

Benton cautioned that state officials are learning more details about the federal money each day but emphasized that hundreds of millions of dollars will fund construction across the state.

"There will be jobs," Benton said, "people contracted to do that work." He acknowledged later that he didn't think the state could require that those jobs go to North Carolinians.