Minnesota AFL-CIO Calls for Bold State Action to Create Jobs

Workday Minnesota editor Barb Kucera reports on the Minnesota AFL-CIO’s job creation strategy unveiled Monday. For more on how unions and their allies on the state and local levels can mobilize for legislation and policies that create jobs and boost the economy for working families, click here.

Responding to the dramatic need to get Minnesotans back to work, the Minnesota AFL-CIO called on state lawmakers to enact a series of bold proposals to create jobs and stimulate economic growth.

At a news conference Monday at the Capitol, Minnesota AFL-CIO President Shar Knutson urged elected officials to quickly pass a bonding bill, support private investment in construction jobs, enact a wage subsidy program and raise revenue as part of solving the state’s budget crisis.

We are asking today that the legislature quickly pass a bonding bill that is at least $1 billion. This will put people to work right away. In addition, we are supporting the construction coalition jobs bill that leverages and stimulates private investment in commercial, industrial, energy-efficient retrofit and residential projects across the state.

While congressional leaders are working on a federal wage subsidy program to help cover the cost of hiring new workers in small and medium-sized businesses, Knutson called for enacting a wage subsidy in Minnesota of up to $12 per hour. Wage subsidy programs, like the Minnesota Emergency Employment Development (MEED) program that was in effect in the 1980s, create jobs by paying a part of the wages of new hires.

To help raise revenue for the jobs program, the state federation is calling for a tax increase for those in the top income brackets. Working families are currently taxed at a 12.4 percent rate while those in the top tier pay 9 percent. Said Knutson:

We understand that this revenue proposal is only part of the solution. But most agree that the current state tax structure is unfair. This proposal moves the state towards tax fairness.

Click here to read Barb’s full article at Workday Minnesota.

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