House committee releases job creation estimates
The Local Jobs for America Act (LJAA) could help support 250,000 education jobs; put 5,500 law enforcement officers on the beat; and retain, rehire and hire firefighters, according to the Washington-based National Association of Counties (NACo). Estimates recently released by the House Education and Labor Committee on the number of jobs LJAA could create or save show that the legislation would create jobs quickly in both the public and private sectors and help restore vital services, according to an article by NACo Associate Legislative Director Deseree Gardner.
LJAAA — developed with input from county officials, mayors and others — would provide $75 billion over two years to local communities to hold off planned cuts or to hire back workers for local services who have been laid-off because of tight budgets, according to Gardner. The bill also would provide $23 billion to states to help support education and public safety jobs. In addition, the legislation would allocate $500 million under the Workforce Investment Act to fund approximately 50,000 additional private-sector, on-the-job training positions to help businesses expand employment. “[LJAA] is the first major proposal to provide local governments, not just states, with direct and flexible fiscal assistance focused on job retention and creation,” Gardner writes.
The LJAA funding distribution mechanism is based on the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program — every city or county with a population of 50,000 or more would be eligible to receive direct funding. Local governments with a population below 50,000 also would be eligible to receive funding through states.
As with CDBG, 70 percent of the funding would be for direct entitlement communities, and 30 percent would be for state pass-through communities, according to Gardner. However, LJAA’s distribution formula is different from CDBG’s. The LJAA formula is based on unemployment numbers (50 percent), poverty level (25 percent) and population (25 percent). Half of the funding can be used to retain employees who might otherwise lose their jobs because of budget shortfalls; 25 percent can be given to local community-based organizations to hire employees to provide services or functions not customarily provided by local government employees; and 5 percent of the funding can be used for program administration.
LJAA funding has no local match requirement, and there is no requirement to retain employees once the funding runs out. “There would be two years of funding, and then it would be up to a city or county to retain employees funded by the program,” Gardner writes. “Employees would have to be hired full time with benefits, under existing contracts or agreements. The federal funding can be used to cover all costs, including salaries and benefits, and there is no cap on per-employee costs. However, no more than 20 percent of the funds can be used for management employees.”
View the House Education and Labor Committee job estimates, and read Gardner’s entire article.
