FCAN hosts "Jobs For Floridians Forum"
Panelists include Tampa City Councilman John Dingfelder, Cheryl Schroeder (AFL-CIO,) Bill Newton (FCAN,) Jeff Harrington (St Petersburg Times,) and Carla Jimenez (Inkwood Books.)
Other videos available on FCAN's You Tube channel
5 Point Plan For Creating Jobs
The current jobs crisis is not just an economic crisis, but a moral one as
well. To address this emergency, a sweeping coalition of over 60 national
organizations has come together to form Jobs for America Now. As part of the
coalition’s efforts to spur job creation and put America back to work, FCAN
supports a five-pronged approach to creating jobs in the short-term and
ending the unemployment crisis. Read details at the
Economic Policy Institute.
1.
Strengthen the safety net and provide relief for those directly impacted by
the recession.
By strengthening and extending safety-net
services such as unemployment compensation, COBRA continuation and nutrition
assistance, we will not only help those impacted by the recession, but we
will also boost demand and spur job creation.
2. Provide fiscal relief to the states.
Providing fiscal relief to states will help states and localities avoid
jobs and service cuts, thereby preventing layoffs. Otherwise, economic
recovery will be plagued by cutbacks in state spending and public employee
job losses. Given the anticipated highs in state budget gaps, federal
revenue sharing is especially critical.
We must enact the second
round of fiscal assistance immediately as states and localities begin to
plan their budgets for the coming year. Additionally, along with funding for
health services like clinics and IT along with funding for new health care
reform obligations under Medicaid need to be fully funded.
3. Progressive taxes/revenue to finance job
creation and economic recovery.
In order to invest in job
creation and economic recovery, we must enact tax increases on the
wealthiest individuals and corporations who have reaped the benefits when
the economy was healthy. For example, the expiration of the Bush tax cuts on
wealthy Americans and estates should be a major revenue source for job
creation and state fiscal relief. In addition, the financial transaction tax
would transfer wealth from the financial sector into investments in job
creation.
Progressive financing should be combined with reductions in
unnecessary and counter-productive military spending.
4. Direct creation of public service jobs.
To directly create jobs in a cost-effective manner, we must invest in
the direct creation of public service jobs in the public- and
nonprofit-sector that benefit local communities and make productive use of
human capital. To be most effective, these programs should be targeted at
communities hit hardest by unemployment. These jobs should be available to
every unemployed worker and pay prevailing wages. Moreover, we must guard
against the displacement of public employees.
The types of work may
vary, depending on the communities’ need. Examples include environmental
clean-up, stream restoration, community policing, before- and after-school
care of children, demolition or boarding up of abandoned houses and
buildings, parks improvements, home health care and preservation of historic
buildings. In addition, health care implementation will provide an
opportunity for job creation in many communities.
5. Investments on infrastructure, especially
school construction, maintenance, and repair.
We can and must
create jobs by meeting the tremendous need for repairing our nation’s
infrastructure. The nation’s schools, for example, could quickly and
effectively spend $10 billion on repairs and maintenance, which would
effectively provide jobs for 1.5 million construction workers along with the
countless other unemployed workers in the supplier industries and those
generated when the newly-employed spend their salaries. Additionally,
Congress must take action on the transportation reauthorizations in the
Clean Water Act which will create hundreds of thousands of jobs in
construction, manufacturing, design and engineering.
Extending Unemployment Benefits
When reckless Wall Street gambling collapsed the economy, the U.S. government stepped in with $14 trillion in emergency funds, loans and guarantees for the big banks on Wall Street. The banks are bouncing back and paying record bonuses this year.
But here on Main Street things are not so rosy. In December, 85,000 Americans lost their jobs. 26 million people are now without jobs or the full-time work they need to support their families.
In March, one million Americans will lose their unemployment insurance unless Congress acts. That number will grow steeply in the months that follow, driving even more families into bankruptcy and weakening an already fragile economy.
Unemployment insurance has a strong stimulus effect. Mark Zandi of Moody’s economy.com estimates that for every $1 in UI benefits the government spends, it creates $1.69 in economic stimulus in the communities where recipients live. Were this money to stop flowing through local supermarkets, pharmacies, utility providers, mortgage companies/banks, the impact would be devastating. The Economic Policy Institute estimates that failure to extend these benefits through the end of 2010 could result in job loss of up to 800,000 people nation-wide.
Stop the bleeding! Please write your member of Congress today.
Ask them to:
-
take swift action to reauthorize unemployment insurance
for those on the program now -
make job creation your top priority in 2010.