Florida Needs Jobs

The US Congress is looking at several jobs proposals this week. A national coalition of organizations that make up Jobs for America Now is calling on Congress to be as bold for America’s workers as they were for big banks and corporations last year.

Time to Be Bold

As Congress continues to work on jobs legislation, hundreds of community groups will kick off a national week of action across the country on March 1^st to build broad base public support for a robust plan to put people back to work. With record unemployment rates, current proposals coming from Washington lack the boldness needed to adequately address the job crisis.

The Jobs for America Now coalition is proposing the following to immediately reduce unemployment:

1. Provide relief through continued and expanded unemployment benefits, COBRA, and supplemental nutrition assistance. Safety net spending not only sustains needy families, it also helps the economy by circulating cash into local communities, helping businesses avert further job cuts.

• Extend substantial fiscal relief to state and local governments to not only preserve needed services, but will also provide millions of jobs in both the public and private sectors.

1. Directly create jobs with a federally funded community jobs program that puts people to work helping communities meet pressing needs, including in distressed communities facing severe unemployment.

At other desperate times in our country’s history the government has included public jobs programs as part of the solution to extreme unemployment. Congressman Keith Ellison from Minnesota has introduced a bill to authorize a Community Jobs program. This bill already has 60 co-sponsors and needs more support for further action in Congress.

1. Invest in infrastructure improvements in schools, transportation, and energy efficiency that can provide jobs in the short run and productivity enhancements in the longer run.

1. Provide tax credits to small and medium-sized businesses.

Larry Mischel of the Economic Policy Institute, a member of the Jobs for America Now coalition, recently testified about the urgent need for a large job creation program.

Some elected officials say we can’t act boldly to create more jobs because we can’t afford to act. But the truth is that we can’t afford not to act.

What is the Congressional delegation from Florida going to do? Will they act boldly for the people of their state and help put people back to work, or continue to allow families to lose their homes, all sense of security, and the economy to fall further behind.

Six Amendments make the ballot

It will be another busy year for voters. The Legislature wants us to give up public campaign finance, and we have a chance to make Florida's election districts more fair and eliminate gerrymandering.

Here's the line up: Currently, state laws allow for public support of candidates for statewide office such as the Governor. This keeps special interests from completely dominating those races. Lawton Chiles was elected with the help of public financing, which helped him defeat Bob Martinez.

Redistricting - finally a way to eliminate gerrymandering. The legislature draws its own districts, with the result that most face no opposition and citizens are essentially deprived of voting rights.

Hometown Democracy is on the ballot. This is a response to the runaway development that got us into so much trouble. It would allow citizens to vote on new developments. The problem is that developers take advantage of the political process and put the costs of development on everyone else, then they walk away with the profits.

There's also a tax exemption for veterans, and a limit on property tax increases.

Yes, that's only five, but redistricting has two amendments. FCAN will keep you up to date on these, and our Board and staff will consider the impacts.