Green Labor Journal - Working for a Substainable Future

AFL-CIO Unveils 2010 State Jobs Agenda

State legislatures have important roles to play

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Last night in his State of the Union message, President Obama called on Congress to pass a jobs bill to help put millions of Americans back to work. But the U.S. Congress is not the only lawmaking body that can fuel job creation. State legislatures have important roles to play.

The AFL -CIO has developed a State Jobs Agenda that union and community allies and working family lawmakers can use as a guideline in developing legislation and policies to protect and create jobs, address budget issues and protect the safety net.

The agenda offers dozens of innovative and effective ways to develop job-centric laws and policy that put working families first. Following are just a few examples.

Restoring Jobs and Holding Corporations Accountable
Some states continue to hand out taxpayer dollars to companies in economic development subsidies but don’t hold the companies accountable for creating the promised jobs or stronger tax bases. Some firms have even used state funds for investments in other states or countries.

Activists and lawmakers can hold corporations accountable in several legislative or regulatory ways such as:
•    Attaching job quality standards to subsidies and contracts;
•    Establishing clawbacks that allow states (and localities) to get their money back from subsidized corporations if they fail to create the number and quality of jobs promised; and
•    Passing legislation to ensure that state tax dollars are used to create in-state jobs by prohibiting states from contracting with or providing economic development assistance to companies that ship the work offshore.  

The State Jobs Agenda also examines methods to:
•    Establish contracting-out standards to ensure that when states contract out services, the contracts go to high quality, law-abiding companies with good workplace practices;
•    Create jobs by investing in infrastructure repair and green Jobs development;
•    Monitor how investment/stimulus funds are spent; and
•    Ensure that U.S. firms and workers have the opportunity to bid on work before a firm with a waiver to Buy American rules is awarded the contract.

Repairing the Safety Net  
Unemployment insurance (UI) benefits are the first line of economic defense for jobless workers. But many states have yet to qualify for some $7 billion in federal funding to modernize their UI systems and provide the expanded and improved benefits required to receive the federal funds. Others are facing funding problems. To address these issues, state legislative activists can:
•    Expand UI eligibility by actions such as covering part-time workers, including most recent earnings in determining eligibility, providing additional weeks of benefits to laid off workers pursuing job training or other improvements.
•    Increase the taxable wage base on which employers must pay UI taxes from the federal minimum of the first $7,000 in income and index to inflation.

Shoring up State Budgets
States are facing a $350 billion budget gap now and in the next fiscal year, in addition to the massive shortfalls from FY 2009. Already, states have cut vital services—and the jobs lost because of the budget cuts are in both the public and private sectors.  If states balance their budgets entirely with spending cuts, it could cost the economy 900,000 jobs. Instead, states can use a variety of measures, including use of reserve funds, revenue raisers and appropriate spending cuts.

For example, Oregon voters this week approved two measures to raise income taxes on the state’s wealthiest earners and increase the $10 minimum annual corporate tax—that hadn’t been changed since 1931—to $150 a year. That extra income will be used to pay for education, health care, public safety and other vital services.

Other solutions include strengthening tax enforcement programs, eliminating tax loopholes that let corporations take taxable profits out of state and tightening rules to prevent employers from avoiding payroll taxes by misclassifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees.  

The 2010 AFL-CIO State Jobs Agenda also provides steps to ensure that green jobs created by state funding and grants are good jobs and the corporations who receive grants for green jobs and environmental services are held accountable.

In addition, the state jobs blueprint outlines several initiatives states can take to provide the type of education and training needed to prepare current and jobless workers, along with students, for the 21st century.  

For more information or a complete copy of the AFL-CIO State Jobs Agenda contact: Christine Silvia-DeGennaro, state legislative issues coordinator, AFL-CIO Government Affairs Department, at 202-637-5177 or csilvia@aflcio.org.

Mike Hall is a former West Virginia newspaper reporter, staff writer for the United Mine Workers Journal and managing editor of the Seafarers Log. He came to the AFL- CIO in 1989 and has written for several federation publications, focusing on legislation and politics, especially grassroots mobilization and workplace safety. Contact Mike Hall at: blognews@aflcio.org.  This article was posted by Mike Hall on January 28, 2010, in the AFL-CIO Now Blog (blog.aflcio.org).