STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, DEC. 3, 2009…..The clamor for another economic lifeline from Washington grew louder Thursday and received amplification from the Patrick administration, while the idea drew criticism from Treasurer Timothy Cahill.

Winning applause from advocates for a three-year, $300 billion stimulus proposal aimed at creating 2.5 million public and non-profit sector jobs, a senior Patrick budget aide signaled the governor’s support for “additional efforts” to secure funding from Washington to put the unemployed to work. 

“The amount of dollars that flowed from Washington to Massachusetts for infrastructure projects was not as great as we all thought it would be back in January,” Ron Marlow, assistant budget secretary for access and opportunity, told the News Service after addressing a crowd of labor officials, religious leaders and unemployed residents in the Nurses Hall. “Any effort that allows us to take care of our infrastructure needs and use that as a platform to help put more unemployed people to work, I believe this governor is going to be fully supportive of that.” 

Cahill, running for governor as an independent, panned the notion of a second major law aimed infusing billions of dollars into the economy, questioning the effectiveness of the original $787 billion package. 

"I would not want to see us do another one, at all," Cahill told a group of about a dozen business executives at a morning meeting. “I’d like to see us pull back on some of what’s committed and pay down the deficit.”

“I think it’s more of a pork bill,” Cahill said, adding, “It’s not a jobs bill, it’s not a stimulus bill, it is a spending bill, there’s no question about that.”

Cahill later expanded his remarks, saying after the meeting that his support would depend on details of the bill, calling tax credits and specially-designed borrowing programs acceptable but saying more federal cash for state and local governments merely delays reckoning with budget deficits. 

With massive amounts of one-time federal funds already spent and major state budget and unemployment problems still evident, debate over a sequel to the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is swirling in Congress. 

Critics of the idea say infusing huge amounts of money into the economy worsens the federal government’s deep fiscal problems, compounding the growing amounts of debt that will need to be retired by future generations.  Supporters say hundreds of thousands of unemployed and underemployed individuals need lifelines and that state governments, despite aid received under ARRA, are still mired in fiscal problems and budget imbalances.

Marlow said the governor believes an emphasis on more infrastructure spending is “key because not only does it allow us to get folks back to work, it allows us to pull in folks who are less-skilled for apprentice opportunities and training opportunities.” Although advocates requested that Gov. Deval Patrick place a call to his friend, President Obama, in support of the proposal, Marlow told the News Service, “I can’t promise a phone call, but I can promise advocacy will happen.”

Supporters of a second stimulus proposal, including the Greater Boston Labor Council, Massachusetts Jobs With Justice and the North Shore Labor Council, said although Massachusetts reports that 307,900 residents are unemployed, the real number is about 507,000, when underemployed part-timers and those who have exhausted unemployment benefits are factored in. 

“People are getting angry,” said Jeff Crosby of the North Shore Labor Council. “I know that the stimulus money saved some jobs. It helped some teachers in my town who otherwise would be on the street. But all we’re seeing is a . . . continued restructuring of the economy in favor of the largest corporations and the banks.” 

The Massachusetts Jobs Coalition, which organized the rally, says the public jobs program can be paid for by instituting a financial transactions tax or increasing taxes on high-earners or the estate tax. Backers of the proposal also called for an “urban agenda,” noting that unemployment tends to be higher in cities. 

Their argument was backed by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, through his chief of human services, who said the mayor would stand with them in pressing Washington for more support. 

“We have to bail out the people,” said the Menino administration official, Larry Mayes. “It is time for an urban agenda. It is time for this country to recognize that most of the world’s population are in cities.”

Nationally, doubts have persisted about the recovery act’s utility, with many Republicans attacking it as a wasteful, deficit-worsening excess. A Congressional Budget Office report released Tuesday found the stimulus had performed in line with expectations established immediately after its February enactment, boosting production by between 1 percent and 3 percent, and lifting employment by between 0.6 percent and 1.6 percent. The net change in federal spending has been slightly smaller as a result of the bill than the CBO originally projected. 

While even the rough contours of what some call “stim 2” remain unclear, some Congressional Democrats have pushed for tax incentives, extended unemployment benefits, construction projects, and small-business loans. 

“It depends on how it’s structured, but right now, if it’s just more of the same, then it’s not going to work,” Cahill said. 

Addressing the Massachusetts Business Roundtable board of directors, Cahill said Massachusetts slotted in the top five nationally in using stimulus dollars for government purposes, but the bottom five for infrastructure spending. 

Alethea Pieters, spokeswoman for the Mass. Recovery and Reinvestment Office, said Cahill’s estimate of the state’s ranking in government spending was roughly accurate. She said that the state recently announced more than 30 ARRA-related projects totaling roughly $165 million, which were not reflected in an earlier congressional analysis of the state’s handling of stimulus dollars. 

That review, which found that Massachusetts was 49th in the nation in putting highway stimulus funds to work, was delivered to Patrick two months ago from U.S. Rep. James L. Oberstar, chair of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and found that the state had committed 23 percent of its funds to that point.

“It should be said that we’ve definitely sped things up,” Pieters told the News Service. “We’re taking a very measured approach to recovery. I don’t think his statement accurately reflects what we’re doing to get the money out the door quickly and strategically.”

At the rally, Rich Rogers, executive secretary of the Greater Boston Labor Council, said it was “absolutely paramount" for Congress to address concerns on Main Street, alleging that Wall Street interests had “got every single thing they wanted” from Washington.  

Rogers called on Congress to advance a package with five key provisions: extended unemployment benefits, funding to make infrastructure investments, money to help states fill budget gaps, assistance to blue-collar workers and the poor, and initiatives to open up access to credit markets.

“It’s pretty much a second stimulus package,” Rogers said.

Crosby, from the North Shore Labor Council, said recovery efforts from Washington have been too focused on banks.  “The reality is the money is being spent wrong,” he said.  “I don’t understand how you have a recovery for banks if you don’t have jobs for us.”

In a letter delivered to Patrick aides, the Massachusetts Jobs Coalition called on the governor to ask Obama “and his advisers that you know” to include the public jobs program in emergency unemployment legislation they expect Obama and members of Congress to file this month.

“We are in a Great Recession so we need a Great Depression New Deal type of remedy,” the coalition wrote in its letter to the governor.

But Cahill urged a cautious approach to stimulus spending.

“I don’t think the first one’s worked that well as stimulus package,” Cahill said. “I think it’s helped states stanch some of their unemployment, with some of their layoffs … But I think it’s just put off the inevitable, because eventually the money’s just going to dry up.”

Mass. Business Roundtable executive director Alan Macdonald said the meeting was the first in 30 years attended by a member of the press.

Other attendees included Robert Popeo, chairman of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo; Verizon regional president Donna Cupelo; former Romney administration economic development chief Ranch Kimball; Tufts Health Plan CEO James Roosevelt, a leading national Democrat; and Harold Hestnes, of counsel at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr.

"Government can help around the edges but government is not going to get that number down," Cahill said, referring to the rising national unemployment rate. 

The state’s jobless rate declined from 9.3 percent to 8.9 percent in October, amid a national increase.