Putting Millionaires Before Jobs

New York Times editorial

November 3, 2011

There’s nothing partisan about a road or a bridge or an airport; Democrats and Republicans have voted to spend billions on them for decades and long supported rebuilding plans in their own states. On Thursday, though, when President Obama’s plan to spend $60 billion on infrastructure repairs came up for a vote in the Senate, not a single Republican agreed to break the party’s filibuster.

That’s because the bill would pay for itself with a 0.7 percent surtax on people making more than $1 million. That would affect about 345,000 taxpayers, according to Citizens for Tax Justice, adding an average of $13,457 to their annual tax bills. Protecting that elite group — and hewing to their rigid antitax vows — was more important to Senate Republicans than the thousands of construction jobs the bill would have helped create, or the millions of people who would have used the rebuilt roads, bridges and airports.

Senate Republicans filibustered the president’s full jobs act last month for the same reasons. And they have vowed to block the individual pieces of that bill that Democrats are now bringing to the floor. Senate Democrats have also accused them of opposing any good idea that might put people back to work and rev the economy a bit before next year’s presidential election.

There is no question that the infrastructure bill would be good for the flagging economy — and good for the country’s future development. It would directly spend $50 billion on roads, bridges, airports and mass transit systems, and it would then provide another $10 billion to an infrastructure bank to encourage private-sector investment in big public works projects.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Republican of Texas, co-sponsored an infrastructure-bank bill in March, and other Republicans have supported similar efforts over the years. But the Republicans’ determination to stick to an antitax pledge clearly trumps even their own good ideas.

A competing Republican bill, which also failed on Thursday, was cobbled together in an attempt to make it appear as if the party has equally valid ideas on job creation and rebuilding. It would have extended the existing highway and public transportation financing for two years, paying for it with a $40 billion cut to other domestic programs. Republican senators also threw in a provision that would block the Environmental Protection Agency from issuing new clean air rules. Only in the fevered dreams of corporate polluters could that help create jobs.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, bitterly accused Democrats of designing their infrastructure bill to fail by paying for it with a millionaire’s tax, as if his party’s intransigence was so indomitable that daring to challenge it is somehow underhanded.

The only good news is that the Democrats aren’t going to stop. There are many more jobs bills to come, including extension of unemployment insurance and the payroll-tax cut. If Republicans are so proud of blocking all progress, they will have to keep doing it over and over again, testing the patience of American voters.

Walker's job killing decision

A day after Governor-elect Scott Walker vowed to carry out his campaign promise to kill the Milwaukee to Madison high-speed rail, he called Talgo, the Spanish train company that has set up shop in Milwaukee, asking them to stay.

So Walker wants the jobs, but not the product.

Walker claims he will use the $810 million in federal stimulus funds on roads, although under the terms of the grants, such a use of the funds is prohibited.

Walker's decision is a job killer.

The New York Times reports that if Walker follows through on his promise the $810 million and jobs building the high speed railroad will leave the state.

So much for making job creation the focus of the new administration.

For the entire story read the New York Times article.

New York unions take the fight for jobs to Wall Street

New Yorkers for Fiscal Fairness has just launched a media campaign all across the state aimed at urging the Legislature to help save New Yorkers from losing even more jobs during these tough economic times.

While Wall Street has largely recovered from the economic crisis and reaped record profits in the last year, Main Street continues to suffer from the fallout of the economic crisis. It seems like corporations are doing better than the rest of us.

Make Corporations Pay Their Fair Share! by NYFF from New York State AFL-CIO on Vimeo.

A jobless recovery is an oxymoron

If you are looking for an economic recovery you can believe in, the October employment report is not for you.

After contracting for a year and a half, the economy grew in the quarter that ended in September, driven largely by federal stimulus. But government spending, as large and as necessary as it has been, has not been enough to revive hiring.

Unemployment surged from 9.8 percent in September to 10.2 percent last month, its highest level since 1983. At the same time, the economy lost 190,000 more jobs. That means employers have eliminated 7.3 million positions since the recession began in December 2007.

As dreadful as they are, the headline numbers understate the severity of the problem. They also obscure an even grimmer fact: Unless there is more government support, it will take several years of robust economic growth — by no means a sure thing — to recoup the jobs that have been lost.

The unemployment rate includes only jobless people who have looked for work in the past four weeks. The underemployment rate — which also includes jobless workers who have not recently looked for work and part-timers who need full-time work — reached 17.5 percent in October. And the long-term unemployment rate — the share of the unemployed population out of work for more than six months — also continues to set records. It is now 35.6 percent.

The official job-loss data also fail to take note of 2.8 million additional jobs needed to absorb new workers who have joined the labor force during the recession. When those missing jobs are added to the official total, the economy comes up short by 10.1 million jobs.

Taken together, the numbers paint this stark picture: At no time in post-World War II America has it been more difficult to find a job, to plan for the future, or — for tens of millions of Americans — to merely get by.

At a recent meeting at the White House to discuss job creation, President Obama said that “bold, innovative action,” would be needed — from the administration, Congress and the private sector — to undo the devastation in the labor market. Americans are waiting for Mr. Obama to lead the way.

There were good ideas floated at the White House meeting, including bolstered federal support for efforts to retrofit and weatherize homes and public buildings. There was also talk of using government money to establishing a so-called infrastructure bank that would issue bonds to help finance big construction projects.

The country also needs a program that would create jobs for teenagers — ages 16 to 19 — whose unemployment rate is currently a record 27.6 percent. Deep and prolonged unemployment among the young is especially worrisome. It means they do not have a chance, and may never get the chance, to acquire needed skills, permanently hobbling their earnings potential.

We know that more stimulus spending and government programs are a fraught topic. But they are exactly what the country needs. It may be the only way to prevent a renewed downturn.

And the only way to create the jobs needed to put Americans back to work. Those are the essential — and missing — ingredients of a sustained recovery.

New York Times, November 8, 2009

Job loss dominates political landscape

On Friday the Department of Labor reported that the unemployment rate had climbed to 10.2%, its highest rate since April 1983.

Nearly 16 million people cannot find work.

The underemployment rate which includes discouraged workers who have given up looking for jobs and those working part-time because they cannot find full time employment hit 17.5%

Economic insecurity and jobs have become the the nation's dominant political issue.

New York Times columnist Charles Blow writes:

This is now Obama’s crisis, and it carries political consequences. During Tuesday’s gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, nearly 9 in 10 voters said that they were worried about the direction of the nation’s economy in the next year. And the majority of those who held that view voted for the Republican candidates. This could portend a flashback to 1994.

It isn’t President Obama’s fault that he inherited this mess, but it is his to fix, and he must make haste. To paraphrase his Toledo prelection: you need to do it not five years from now, not next year, you need to do it right now. J-O-B-S.

Republicans block help for unemployed

The New York Times reports:

There are now more than five million Americans — roughly one-third of the unemployed — who have been out of work for six months or longer, ... a record since data was first recorded in 1948.

Congress has extended benefits several times, most recently in February, but for many workers they are again running out.

The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid (D Nevada), and other Democrats have introduced a bill that would extend unemployment insurance by up to an additional 14 weeks in all 50 states, with another six weeks for states with a jobless rate above 8.5 percent. It is an improvement on a bill passed by the House, which would extend benefits only in states with unemployment above 8.5 percent.

February’s extension, which included a $25-a-week increase in benefits, kept 800,000 people out of poverty...Putting more money in the pockets of the unemployed provided much-needed stimulus for the entire economy.

Every day that the Republicans continue to block an extension...means thousands more Americans pushed closer to the edge of despair.

Walker's budget is a job killer

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker’s proposal to create a Department of Business Development is an empty, political gesture. It won’t help the area’s unemployed or promote economic growth. But it will spend almost half a million dollars creating a new government bureaucracy.

Taxpayers need to ask do we really need another economic development bureaucracy?

Metropolitan Milwaukee already has several public and private agencies devoted to business development and job creation including the M7, the highly publicized public private partnership devoted to regional economic development, Milwaukee’s 200 person Department of City Development, and similar shops in West Allis and Wauwatosa. Most other communities like Cudahy, Greenfield and Franklin have economic development directors, teams or commissions devoted to business development.

And this list does not include the many state agencies, the Department of Commerce, the Department of Workforce Development and Forward Wisconsin, for example, devoted to the same effort. . Only three years ago the Great Milwaukee Committee criticized “the astonishing” duplication of services between the county and its municipalities. This proposal only exacerbates the problem.

The fanfare surrounding Walker’s proposal, including a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial and an opinion piece by County Supervisor Joe Rice, is reminiscent of the hoopla that accompanied the Greater Milwaukee Committee’s Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC).

ICIC proponents, just like Walker and Rice today, alleged that labor market policies and non-profit organizations had distorted the labor market and impeded business development. They argued we should abandon these well-meaning, but misguided efforts, and let market forces drive revitalization, ignoring that it was unfettered market forces that had caused Milwaukee’s deindustrialization and nationally high rates of unemployment and poverty. In the end, the only real job that ICIC created was for the Harvard consultant, Michael E. Porter, who was extremely well compensated for designing the project.

Rice asserts that the County's Park East Redevelopment Compact (PERC), which he and Walker opposed, is responsible for the lack of development in the corridor. He conveniently ignores that no one is building because we are mired in the worst recession since the Great Depression, the nation's credit markets virtually collapsed more than a year ago and the downtown condo market is saturated, burdened with extremely high vacancy rates.

What Rice and Walker mischaracterize as obstacles are carefully crafted standards that require local hiring, wage standards and state of the art, energy efficient (cost saving) construction. Local governments have a responsibility to the taxpayers to establish such standards particularly for developers who are receiving millions in tax benefits and public subsidies. In the private sector it is called a return on investment.

Lest we forget, Milwaukee County had a Department of Economic Development that Walker eliminated in a cost cutting move a year ago.

What has changed in the last twelve months to justify resurrecting a half million dollar bureaucracy? The only difference between the department Walker eliminated the one he envisions is that the new employees will be appointed by Walker without the County Board’s consent. The lack of checks and balances virtually guarantees the appointment of cronies who could use the new agency to undermine the Park East Corridor's development standards.

While Walker talks about job development, his actual budget is a job killer. It will eliminate another 400 middle class jobs in Milwaukee County (7% of the County’s employees) and slash the wages and benefits of those who continue to serve the County as airport firefighters, information management specialists, and park maintenance workers.

Rather than create another bureaucracy devoted to costly pursuit of jobs, Walker should devote himself to preserving real and existing middle class jobs. These jobs pay real Milwaukee County residents modest, but family supporting wages that they spend in the local economy stimulating additional hiring and business development. Cutting these middle class workers’ wages by between by $6800 and $8400 annually will force many into poverty, demoralize the County’s workforce, undermine productivity, and reduce aggregate demand in a local economy that is mired in a deep and prolonged recession. If Walker is really committed to having market forces drive local economic development he should not pursue an agenda that undermines the consumer market (aggregate demand) for goods and services.

Walker’s proposal is the most cynical type of political grandstanding. While eliminating hundreds of real jobs, the only jobs Walker’s proposal will create are for the cronies he will almost certainly hire to staff his new agency.

The County Board should reject this proposal for the political grandstanding gesture than it is.

New study reports: Fastest growing jobs require an associate degree

A recently released study reports that jobs requiring associate degrees will grow at nearly twice the national average in the coming years. As result two-year colleges will play an increasingly crucial role in reviving the nation's economy.

This is just the latest in a series of reports that urge increased federal investment in two-year colleges.

In "A Matter of Degrees: Tomorrow's Fastest Growing Jobs and Why Community College Graduates Will Get Them," Jessica Milano, Paul Weinstein Jr. and Bruce Reed took a close look at the American job market, analyzing where it is expected to grow as the nation moves out of recession. Among their findings:

· Demand for Two-Year College Graduates Will Spike: Jobs for community college graduates will grow at nearly double the national average.

· Health Care and Education Top the List of Growth Industries: Nurses and teachers are among the professions that will generate more than three out of 10 new jobs over the next decade.

· IT Hot Jobs Will Offer the Highest Pay: Firms employing information technology specialists will require highly skilled workers with extensive education and training.

· Green Jobs will Triple over the Next Decade: Spurred by the economic recovery package and other efforts to promote energy innovation, this sector will be a pillar of the new Hybrid Economy.

In an effort to help the nation meet the president's goal of driving the United States, by 2020, to be the world leader in college graduates per capita, the authors propose:

· Free Community College for Students Pursuing 'Hot Jobs': The federal government should create a community college block grant that awards states money each year based on number of students that graduate with degrees that prepare them for high-growth professions.

· A National Campaign Against Dropping Out: Every year, about half a million young people drop out of college -- and at community colleges the dropout rate is even higher. There is a need for a national crusade to reduce high school and college dropouts at the same time.

· Reward and Demand College Completion -- Not Attendance: insist -- from institutions and students alike -- that in return for financial assistance, we expect graduation with a degree.

· Improve and Expand President Obama's American Opportunity Tax Credit: To make community college more affordable, make the American Opportunity Tax Credit fully refundable and more generous. In addition, challenge states to hold the line on the cost of public community colleges until the recession ends.

· Additional Flexibility for State-Financed 'Hot Job' Training: Reform the stove-piped system for funding job training programs. Congress should give the administration broad authority to give waivers to states that have formulated plans to increase the number of workers who receive training and obtain jobs.

Milwaukee's leadership fails to fight for family supporting employment

Robert Kraig and Amy Stear have an excellent column on the abysmal failure of Milwaukee's economic and political elites to make family supporting job creation a priority.

Since the late 1970's the Greater Milwaukee Committee (GMC) and the Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce (MMAC) have controlled the region's economic development strategies promoting an approach that relies on business tax breaks and subsidies. The result-Milwaukee has lost thousands of family supporting unionized jobs. It now has the 7 th highest poverty rate in the country and the second highest black white unemployment ratio.

Stear and Kraig write:

The visceral opposition to the sick days referendum is also about something larger. Like the reform battles 100 years ago, the sick days referendum advances an economic populism that the local political establishment and its allies in the business community would prefer to sweep under the rug. As the city has hemorrhaged family-supporting jobs, the political and business elite have steadfastly refused to allow job quality to become a central public policy focus. The paid sick days ordinance is a dramatic step in the opposite direction endorsed by over 159,000 Milwaukee voters.

Forcing a major issue into the public sphere over the objections of entrenched interests accustomed to having their way at City Hall is exactly what La Follette era Wisconsin progressives hoped direct legislation would achieve. The city's disgraceful decision not to legally defend an overwhelming vote by its own citizens is a black mark on the progressive history of Milwaukee. But it is not too late for the city to reverse course and defend the ordinance in the next stages of the legal process. We believe it is incumbent on Mayor Tom Barrett and the Common Council to stand up for Wisconsin's democratic traditions and use the power of their offices to defend the people's right to decide.

The entire column is linked.