WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's $447 billion jobs package includes more than $600 million for school and community college construction projects across New Jersey, the White House said today.
Nearly $519 million would go toward K-12 construction -- creating 6,700 jobs in the process -- and almost $124 million to the state's community colleges, according to a White House fact sheet.
Obama is calling on Congress to spend $30 billion on school and community college construction projects nationwide, saying schools and millions of unemployed people would benefit.
But it's unclear if congressional Republicans will go along with every proposal in the the jobs bill, the details of which Obama unveiled Monday.
Obama wants Congress to approve "permanent tax increases ... to pay for temporary spending," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said today. "I just don't think that's going to help our economy."
Some Republicans like Rep. Leonard Lance of Clinton Township say there are elements of the plan they could support, such as extending a payroll tax cut into 2012, passing a transportation bill and extending unemployment benefits.
