PALO - Iowa Gov. Chet Culver toured flood devastated communities in eastern Iowa Wednesday to gather support for his I-JOBS Initiative. While he's meeting some opposition in the legislature, the governor believes bonding and existing gaming revenue are the best ways to fund the $750 million.

As Culver surveyed some the heaviest flood damaged areas in Palo, he spoke about his I-JOBS idea with city leaders. He says, for every $100 million invested, up to 2,800 new construction jobs would be available in the state. For the projects in places like Palo, people there want to see some of their own get those jobs.

Tom Watson, Palo's rebuilding coordinator, says, "We don't want no big construction companies from outside, from Minneapolis or some place like that coming to town. We want to keep our people employed."

Palo needs upgrades to the sewer and water system, not to mention work on hundreds of homes. When TV9 asked the governor about keeping those jobs for local laid-off workers, he said that's the plan, but there are other considerations.

He says, "So, if one company says, 'We can create 30 jobs,' and another says, 'We'll create 15,' we're probably going to be more interested in that contractor that will put more Iowans to work."

He adds 82 Iowa counties saw an increase in unemployment over the past year.

"We have data on the 3,500 Iowans who lost their construction jobs last year, so if we can target we know we're going to do a project in Linn County, in a certain part of Linn County, we can look at that data and inform those workers that there are some jobs."

After the tour in Palo, city leaders say they believe they gave the governor proof to take back to the legislature of why these jobs are so necessary.

Watson says, "We're not asking completely for a handout. We just want help getting the job done."

The Associated General Contractors of Iowa is riding the coattails of Governor Culver's announcement. The group has launched agciajobs.com to let skilled construction workers and equipment operators know that highway jobs are available.

It hopes to post 30 to 40 jobs there this spring and possibly more later in the year. As opportunities open up under the governor's plan, this would give workers one site where they can see which Iowa contractors are hiring.

Roger Bierbaum from the Iowa Department of Transportation, which is helping to roll out the site, says, "It's been more difficult for people who want to find highway construction workers who want to get into the industry, and this is a way to recruit people in to those jobs."