cross-posted from Working America's Main Street blog where I am a featured guest blogger
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