We all want to create jobs; the question is, how do you do it?
Some people say the way to create jobs is to cut state spending. Yet we’ve already cut $10 billion in state spending, and it’s been painful rather than an economic boom.
Other people claim the best way to boost our economy is to cut red tape. This sounds good. Who likes paperwork?
Yet we’ve been cutting red tape for years, finding ways of doing things better, faster and cheaper. It’s important work, but it’s not a huge job creator.
We want to do something that will work, and create not dozens of jobs, but thousands. And not simply in theory. Give us a proven winner.
Also, it needs to be fast, cheap and targeted at those who need jobs the most: construction workers (30 percent unemployment in Western Washington, 60 percent east of the mountains), young people and returning veterans.
While there are dozens of theories for creating jobs, economists tell us two keys to creating jobs today are a great education system and infrastructure such as buildings, water lines and roads.
Investing more in education is a priority for everyone. Realists have to see that such investments are tough for the moment, with the state looking at a $2 billion shortfall.
But there is hope.
Two very different men, in two very different times, showed us a solution.
During the Great Depression, cutting state spending only laid off more workers and made things worse. President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to solve the problem with bold action: Instead of trying things that might, hypothetically, create jobs, FDR put people to work. Right away.
FDR tried all sorts of ways of doing this. He had people clear trails and create parks. Workers built schools, universities and the great dams that still power Washington state today.
It was a win-win: Laid-off workers got back on their feet, and America got the infrastructure, the bridges and dams and schools, that created private-sector jobs and turned this country into a superpower.
In the 1970s, Washington state faced a similar problem: a bad recession with a lot of people out of work. Gov. Dan Evans, a Republican, also looked at his options and made the same decision to put people to work, right away, in every corner of Washington state.
Voters approved five of the six initiatives Evans put on the ballot. People went to work fixing schools and building things from Aberdeen to Zillah.
Evans is the longest-serving governor in our state’s history, and he said that his initiative – Jobs Now, Washington’s Future – was the best thing that he did as governor.
We’ve taken inspiration from FDR and Evans. Rather than fight about which party has the better ideas for creating jobs, it’s our belief that we should take a proven winner, an idea that’s been supported by Democrats and Republicans.
Our common prosperity is more important than scoring political points. When somebody loses their job, it’s not just a loss for them and their family. It’s a loss for us all. And when somebody gets a job, that’s a win for all of us.
Business and labor have come to the same decision. Jobs are so important that they are setting aside their old rivalry to unite behind the idea that we should take bold action and repeat the success of FDR and Dan Evans.
Our idea doesn’t raise a dime in taxes. It frontloads the construction jobs already in the pipeline. Instead of doing them two years from now, or five years down the road, we do them now.
This creates a lot more jobs. We finance it by using existing revenue streams that already fund this work in our state’s construction budget. Doing this will not only create jobs in a hurry, it will target the people hurting the most: construction workers, veterans and young people.
But it will not be easy. If you know somebody who’s out of work, or want to see our state take bold action to boost the economy in every corner of Washington state, please take a moment to call or email your lawmakers. They need to hear from you. They need to hear your stories.
If we work together, we can create more than 20,000 jobs and get started by the spring and summer construction seasons – while building a better Washington for our kids and grandkids.
State Rep. Tami Green, D-Lakewood, is the House floor leader. State Rep. Troy Kelley, D-Lakewood, is vice chairman of the House Business and Financial Services Committee.
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