CNNMoney notes today that state and local governments are facing a very difficult budget year. Faced with declining revenue, some local municipalities and states are looking to cut their workforce.
The bill, which was developed with mayors, county officials and others, will put a million people to work by restoring these services to local communities, in both public and private sector jobs.
Learn more about Chairman Miller's Local Jobs for America Act and watch Chairman Miller on CNBC explaining the importance of this bill.
Update: After the bill was rolled out, the Economic Policy Institute applauded the Local Jobs for America Act.
State and local governments are collectively the nation's biggest source of jobs, together employing almost 15 times as many Americans as Wal-Mart.To help state and local municipalities deal with some of these budget shortfalls, Chairman Miller along with other members of Congress and a bipartisan group of mayors introduced new legislation that will create up to one million public and private sector jobs. The financial collapse is forcing states and municipalities to cut jobs that are critically important to local communities – teachers, police, firefighters, childcare workers, and others – cuts that threaten to derail America’s economic recovery. The bill also contains innovative job creation strategies that will help hundreds of thousands of individuals get private sector jobs.
They added 2 million jobs over the past decade and helped to cushion the shock of the Great Recession by holding employment steady since the end of 2007, a time when the private sector was hemorrhaging 8.5 million jobs.
But another ugly state budget season is coming up, which will mean more belt-tightening for local governments -- and another source of pressure for an already anemic jobs market recovery.
...Layoffs aren't the first choice of governments seeking to balance their budgets. A survey conducted late last year by the Center for State and Local Government Excellence found two-thirds of respondents had stopped hiring and almost as many had put a freeze on raises. Less than half had resorted to job cuts, however.
But the size of budget shortfalls is making cuts inevitable. A thousand state workers in South Carolina could lose their jobs if the legislature enacts a pending budget proposal, the Columbia State reported. Cutbacks are pending in Virginia, Georgia and many other states.
The bill, which was developed with mayors, county officials and others, will put a million people to work by restoring these services to local communities, in both public and private sector jobs.
Learn more about Chairman Miller's Local Jobs for America Act and watch Chairman Miller on CNBC explaining the importance of this bill.
Update: After the bill was rolled out, the Economic Policy Institute applauded the Local Jobs for America Act.
