States may shed another 1 million jobs
By Aaron Glantz, New America Media
On the eve of President Barack Obama's White House Summit on Jobs,labor leaders yesterday issued a dire warning: Unless Congress andObama create a "bold jobs program," state and local governments couldshed almost a million jobs next year, further worsening our nationalunemployment rate.
"The budget crisis that they face is dire," Thea Lee, chief of staff ofthe labor federation AFL-CIO, told a conference call with journalists.
"If we don't help state and local governments," she said, they will "cut off vital services to people who are struggling at the worstpossible moment, whether it's community safety, fire fighting, orhealth care."
Lee also predicted that they would shed hundreds of thousands of jobsthrough layoffs. "We cannot afford to have state and local budget cutsundermine the recovery before it gets off the ground," she said.
The nation's unemployment rate already stands at 10.2%, its highest rate in 26 years.
Unemployment is even higher for blacks (15.7%), Hispanics (13.1%). The Labor Department says more than one in four teenagers areunemployed.
Obama's jobs summit today will gather top business leaders, unionofficials, politicians, and economists to provide ideas forjumpstarting the economy and putting people back to work, according toWhite House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
Unions and liberal lawmakers hope the president will use his jobs forumto get the ball rolling on a second stimulus package that builds on the$787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) he signed inFebruary.
That Recovery Act contained a $53.6 billion State Fiscal StabilizationFund, which the government reports saved 250,000 education jobs acrossthe country. Other provisions of ARRA helped prevent layoffs of policeofficers, firefighters and health care workers.
But that money has all been spent and the financial picture of moststate and local governments remains grim. So unless Congress ponies upnew money, many of those workers whose jobs were saved by the stimuluswill have to be let go.
"They are already furloughing a lot of people and laying people off,state aid is going away, sales taxes have been hammered, and income taxin places with high unemployment will continue to decline," said MarkMuro, policy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program of theBrookings Institution.
In addition, Muro said property tax revenue will likely continue todecline as homes and commercial buildings are re-assessed at lowervalues.
And, Muro said, local government makes up approximately 11% of all employment in urban areas.
As a result, many Democrats in Congress are pushing the White House toimplement a wide ranging, federally funded jobs program implemented bylocal government.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) is pushing a $40 billion jobs program, which he says would create "one million, full-time jobs."
"These jobs could focus on communities that critically need them andput people back to work," he said. "People are needed to paint andrepair schools, community centers, libraries, clean up abandoned andvacant properties, alleviate the blight that's been caused by theforeclosure crisis."
"We need people to help expand our emergency food programs to preventhunger and promote stability, and of course we need staff at our HeadStart and pre-school programs," he said. "We have all kinds of jobsthat need to be filled and all kinds of people we need to fill them.But we need to pay those people who can get the economy going again."
Financing a new stimulus would likely run into difficulties on Capital Hill, however.
Robert Borosage, director of the Campaign for America's Future, whichorganized the conference call during which Lee and Ellison spoke, notedthe political hurdles. "Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi has pushed hard to getsomething out of the House before the holiday break, but the Senate islocked into this health care debate and it's hard to imagine themgetting anything done before they get freed of that."
And that debate will likely stretch into the new year while job losses mount.
Brookings' Muro is more optimistic. He sees a second stimulus by theend of the year -- either in the form of direct federal aid to cities tostave off job losses, or in the form of large amounts of money pumpedinto transportation and infrastructure projects that would sparkadditional employment. Another possibility, he said, is a largeinvestment in the Community Development Block Grants program, whichwould provide federal dollars to local communities across America.
"The tension is going to be between a White House very concerned aboutfiscal issues and an increasing deficit and Democrats in Congress whoare more ready to increase the deficit to respond to the jobsemergency."
Regardless, Muro said, "most forecasters expect unemployment tocontinue with continued job losses for a number of months -- let alonebeginning to make back the millions of jobs that have already beenlost."
On the eve of President Barack Obama's White House Summit on Jobs,labor leaders yesterday issued a dire warning: Unless Congress andObama create a "bold jobs program," state and local governments couldshed almost a million jobs next year, further worsening our nationalunemployment rate.
"The budget crisis that they face is dire," Thea Lee, chief of staff ofthe labor federation AFL-CIO, told a conference call with journalists.
"If we don't help state and local governments," she said, they will "cut off vital services to people who are struggling at the worstpossible moment, whether it's community safety, fire fighting, orhealth care."
Lee also predicted that they would shed hundreds of thousands of jobsthrough layoffs. "We cannot afford to have state and local budget cutsundermine the recovery before it gets off the ground," she said.
The nation's unemployment rate already stands at 10.2%, its highest rate in 26 years.
Unemployment is even higher for blacks (15.7%), Hispanics (13.1%). The Labor Department says more than one in four teenagers areunemployed.
Obama's jobs summit today will gather top business leaders, unionofficials, politicians, and economists to provide ideas forjumpstarting the economy and putting people back to work, according toWhite House press secretary Robert Gibbs.
Unions and liberal lawmakers hope the president will use his jobs forumto get the ball rolling on a second stimulus package that builds on the$787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) he signed inFebruary.
That Recovery Act contained a $53.6 billion State Fiscal StabilizationFund, which the government reports saved 250,000 education jobs acrossthe country. Other provisions of ARRA helped prevent layoffs of policeofficers, firefighters and health care workers.
But that money has all been spent and the financial picture of moststate and local governments remains grim. So unless Congress ponies upnew money, many of those workers whose jobs were saved by the stimuluswill have to be let go.
"They are already furloughing a lot of people and laying people off,state aid is going away, sales taxes have been hammered, and income taxin places with high unemployment will continue to decline," said MarkMuro, policy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program of theBrookings Institution.
In addition, Muro said property tax revenue will likely continue todecline as homes and commercial buildings are re-assessed at lowervalues.
And, Muro said, local government makes up approximately 11% of all employment in urban areas.
As a result, many Democrats in Congress are pushing the White House toimplement a wide ranging, federally funded jobs program implemented bylocal government.
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) is pushing a $40 billion jobs program, which he says would create "one million, full-time jobs."
"These jobs could focus on communities that critically need them andput people back to work," he said. "People are needed to paint andrepair schools, community centers, libraries, clean up abandoned andvacant properties, alleviate the blight that's been caused by theforeclosure crisis."
"We need people to help expand our emergency food programs to preventhunger and promote stability, and of course we need staff at our HeadStart and pre-school programs," he said. "We have all kinds of jobsthat need to be filled and all kinds of people we need to fill them.But we need to pay those people who can get the economy going again."
Financing a new stimulus would likely run into difficulties on Capital Hill, however.
Robert Borosage, director of the Campaign for America's Future, whichorganized the conference call during which Lee and Ellison spoke, notedthe political hurdles. "Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi has pushed hard to getsomething out of the House before the holiday break, but the Senate islocked into this health care debate and it's hard to imagine themgetting anything done before they get freed of that."
And that debate will likely stretch into the new year while job losses mount.
Brookings' Muro is more optimistic. He sees a second stimulus by theend of the year -- either in the form of direct federal aid to cities tostave off job losses, or in the form of large amounts of money pumpedinto transportation and infrastructure projects that would sparkadditional employment. Another possibility, he said, is a largeinvestment in the Community Development Block Grants program, whichwould provide federal dollars to local communities across America.
"The tension is going to be between a White House very concerned aboutfiscal issues and an increasing deficit and Democrats in Congress whoare more ready to increase the deficit to respond to the jobsemergency."
Regardless, Muro said, "most forecasters expect unemployment tocontinue with continued job losses for a number of months -- let alonebeginning to make back the millions of jobs that have already beenlost."
