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Robert Hughey may not walk on water, but he was seen as something of a savior last October when he was appointed New Jersey's first jobs czar. Gov. Jim Florio, after all, charged him with raising the dead-the state's moribund economy, with its shrinking job base.
Appointed to a new, one-year post with cabinet rank and buoyed with bipartisan support--a rare feat in New Jersey--Mr. Hughey was told to find and promote job-creating projects in both private and public sectors. He was also directed to cut through the red tape holding up abut $1 billion in state-aided construction projects.
Expectations were high, abetted by official ballyhoo surrounding Mr. Hughey's appointment as chief of economic recovery. Neither the 50-year-old Mr. Hughey nor the governor set job-creation targets, but speculation rose that the jobs czar might help create 60,000 to 150,000 new jobs.
As he leaves office this month, with no successor in sight, his record is less than awesome. His efforts yielded 30,000 immediate jobs, mainly in the construction industry. These projects, such as the Atlantic City convention center, could produce another 75,000 permanent jobs.
During his tenure, Mr. Hughey also nurtured a youth employment program, a school construction project fund, a program to develop high-tech businesses and several big-ticket construction projects. Critics, however, say that too many of the projects he helped develop are little more than window-dressing and that the jobs he helped produce are only short-term.
Mr. Hughey acknowledges that those concerns are legitimate, but maintains there is a limit to what a state official can do in difficult times. "You can't change a national economy," he observes.