Job Worries Outweigh Optimism After Bush’s Address : State of the Union: Most say tax credits will help. But many are disappointed the President didn’t stress putting people back to work.

Steven Jay Ipsen, a deputy district attorney in the San Fernando Courthouse, wondered whether he’d finally be able to buy a house with the help of the $5,000 tax credit proposed by President Bush.

“I’ve been a lawyer for five years, making a good salary, and I still cannot afford to buy my first house,” the 30-year-old Mission Hills resident said. “The tax credit would make a difference for me.”

But Tu Grofcsik, a real estate agent in the Santa Clarita Valley, was not optimistic that such an incentive for first-time home buyers would really make a difference in her depressed territory, where moderately priced subdivisions once drew legions of young families.

“Nobody has jobs,” said Grofcsik, a native of Vietnam who came to the United States in 1975 and now works for All-Valley Realty in Sand Canyon.

“People just need jobs. Then real estate will follow.”

Like many Americans, Ipsen and Grofcsik watched Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, eager to see how Bush’s proposals might affect their own lives.

And like many others surveyed Wednesday, they found some grounds for optimism in Bush’s proposals, but these were outweighed by worries about the economy--especially unemployment.

Armando Mendez, for instance, was pleased to hear the President support extension of jobless benefits. The 44-year-old Sylmar man was one of those laid off in the aerospace industry.

But, Mendez noted, “you can’t live off unemployment.” And as he saw it, Bush “didn’t say anything to put people back to work.”

On the other end of the income scale, an Encino stockbroker noted that, to his top clients, the much-awaited speech “was a non-event.” A proposal to reduce the withholding tax paid by most Americans would mean only $7 a week for the average household, he noted.

“Big deal!” he commented. “On an individual basis, that means nothing.”

The speech also did not cheer up clients at the Verdugo Job Center in Burbank, a federally sponsored facility that helps displaced Lockheed Corp. employees find work.

“I was expecting him to talk about how he was going to create jobs, and that was not really dealt with,” said Kosta Fotinos, 52, a staff engineer who has been out of work almost two years.

“He didn’t address making new products here or anything that’s going to bring new jobs. He has no idea what’s happening on the street, what the real world is,” Fotinos said. “I was extremely disappointed.”

Archie Hinchen, 36, a former Lockheed plastics fabricator, said the President’s proposals might help the middle class but not the lower class. And “we belong to the lower end now.”

As president of the Encino-based Larwin Co.--which has developed housing tracts in areas such as Lancaster, Palmdale and the Santa Clarita Valley--Michael Keston naturally was pleased to hear of the $5,000 tax credit for home buyers and of another proposal to bolster the real estate industry: encouraging use of IRA funds for down payments.

“I think this will be a significant benefit,” he said.

But putting his own business aside, Keston said, “As a general citizen, my concern is we’re offering a lot of things that might have a negative effect on the deficit. . . . The speech offered too much to too many.”

“When Rome fell,” he observed, “they offered everybody something until there was nothing left.”

The goal now, Keston said, is to “create jobs, not tax cuts.”

Patricia Raphael, a Century 21 real estate agent in Van Nuys, similarly worried about the overall effect of real estate tax credit proposals, even though they could help her business.

“Whatever the government gives on one hand, it has to take back with another,” she said. “I don’t think he can afford to do this.”

Marta De Negri of North Hills, a single mother of two who works as a parking lot attendant, couldn’t imagine that any of Bush’s proposals could directly affect her life, although she was pleased that some people may find it easier to buy a house.

“Right now, buying a home is an unreachable dream for many of us,” she said.

Jim McGowan of West Hills, meanwhile, had no trouble understanding how part of Bush’s plan related to his life. The President, who has repeatedly called for the strengthening of families, proposed granting parents an extra $500 tax deduction for each child--and he and his wife have six children, ranging in age from 1 to 13.

“Something like that would definitely be a significant help,” McGowan, 35, said.

“We just enjoy a big family,” he said, but supporting six children isn’t cheap.

“To cover the mortgage . . . and keep food on the table,” McGowan works up to 70 hours a week, teaching sixth grade at Sierra Canyon School in Chatsworth and tutoring on the side. His wife began a career as a nurse last year at Valley Presbyterian Hospital.

If they ever get the $3,000 extra tax deduction for their six children, McGowan said, “We’d probably put it toward a vacation. . . . We don’t get too many of those.”

Times staff writer Greg Braxton contributed to this story.