500,000 Layoffs Coming, Officials Warn
Half a million local public workers across the country could lose their jobs without legislation to support city and county services, a report issued (pdf) by groups of local officials said this week.
New survey research announced today shows that local governments are now facing a fiscal crisis that will force job losses approaching 500,000 and significant cuts in much needed public services. Representatives from the National League of Cities (NLC), United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) and the National Association of Counties (NACo) jointly released the survey results at a press conference on Capitol Hill earlier today and were joined by several members of Congress offering their support to cities and counties during these difficult economic times.
“For local governments, unemployment and foreclosures resulting from the Great Recession translate into too few revenues making it increasingly difficult to fund or satisfactorily maintain many basic services — not only parks, libraries, and public works projects but also public safety, police and fire services,” said Ron Loveridge, NLC President, Mayor of Riverside, California.
Loveridge continued, “Cities are not only the engines of their local communities, they are also the backbone of their regional economies, where investments in infrastructure and services provide a platform for private sector investment and growth. And cities are the wealth of nations. We are where economic recovery must take place… we are where jobs are increased, or more commonly lately, are lost. We must change that equation.”
The groups renewed their call for Congress to pass the Local Jobs for America Act. The bill would help local governments save as many as half a million public service jobs and fund an additional half million new local jobs for two years. First introduced last spring by Rep. George Miller (D-CA), the bill now has 163 House co-sponsors. In the Senate it is being sponsored by Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Al Franken (D-MN) and Mark Begich (D-AK).
At a press conference led by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter, representing the U.S. Conference of Mayors, the groups also warned of the domino-like impact of widespread local service layoffs, saying that every public sector job lost can result in an equal number of local private business layoffs. Mayor Nutter was joined by several early co-sponsors of the Local Jobs for America Act, including (left to right) Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL).
The Jobs for America Now coalition, which includes Working America, the AFL-CIO and more than sixty other national organizations, will be organizing support for the legislation during the August Congressional recess.
The author is the winner of the 2010 CREDO Mobile/Netroots Nation award for Blog Activist of the Year.
Tags: Jobs, layoffs, Local Jobs for America Act, unemployment
Let our state and local goverment cut back just like the rest of america and learn to live in there budgets.Look you want to help put that money into unemployment and help the people that support goverment our 99ers need help not the goverment.I live in illinois and i do i repeat do not think that money is being spent wisely,Illinois and chicago will just waste it on pet projects and to that i say hell no.Give it to the unemployed and they will SPEND THE MONEY AND THEN TAX REVENUE WILL HELP LOCAL GOVERMENT.We as a people can sleep at night knowing we can pay bills and keep our houses then that is how we help by paying taxes.So once again i say no to giving money to goverments give it to the people that need to live and by spending the money on goods and services we suppory business and local goverment.The way i look at it money is spent three or more ways first the unemployed second the stores third the tax revenue all by extending unemployment benefits insted of throwing it away to local goverments.Remember its WE THE PEOPLE NOT WE THE GOVERMENT.
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Everyone keeps looking at the unemployment rates and wondering when they will go down. The fact is the jobs won’t return; they have been shipped overseas. Unemployment has been on the rise ever since the removal of import tarriffs which moved us from Fair Trade to Free Trade. This was the beginning of the jobs going overseas to cheap, cheap labor and unregulated standards.
Of course our products did cost more to make here because not only have our workers over the years gained a decent wage for a reasonable work week, but the products cost more because of the addional other protections we require in producing our products in America as opposed to those of third world countries. We implemented and regulated safety standards in our work place. We demanded quality standards in our products. We insisted on regulated standards and the monitoring of our food and medical items. These are all very costly requirements compared to the unregulated third world countries. Also, the third world work force is willing to work obscene hours for little pay and horrible and unsafe working conditions.
In order for jobs to return to America, our work force will have to be content to work under third world standards to compete. Don’t look for this to happen anytime soon. In fact look for unemployment to increase until the work force accepts this reality. The cost of the move from Free Trade was Fair Trade, and it has devastated the American work force.
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With the Supreme court’s recent decision that it would be in violation of the first amendment to restrict corporations and unions the right to make unlimited contributions to promoting political campaigns, individuals will no longer have a voice in Washington. Washington is already unduly influenced by lobbyists and special interests. Through availability of enormous contributions not available to individuals, Washington will now not only be influenced but will be run by Corporations and other legal entities.
Everything I have ever read speaks to the position of individuals having “rights,” and legal entities having “privileges.” This decision was wrong, made by the five conservatives on the court. The corporations and other legal entities referred to by the court are not concerned with the welfare of the people, but rather only their bottom line. This hampers the political process.
Corporations and other legal entities do not have the rights referred to in the constitution, but rather only privileges granted by individuals. This decision was a terrible miscarry of justice, and must be reversed
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@ Keyman: I’m pretty sure school bus drivers, the people who pick up your trash, and kindergarten teachers are real people. And they spend money to create jobs too. We definitely need to make sure the unemployed get assistance as well, but it as not as if trash collectors are our enemies. And it was Wall Street, not social workers making very low wages helping place people in jobs after earning Master’s degrees, who created this jobs crisis. The ruling class laughs all the way to the bank when they manage to turn unemployed workers against those “greedy” bus drivers who are just making it, too. Crabs in a barrel.
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