West Virginia Blue
The Best Blogging Community in West Virginia Democratic politics, progressive policies, the good life and free living in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.
"Oh Say, did you see him; it was early this morning.
He passed by your houses on his way to the coal.
He was tall, he was slender, and his dark eyes so tender
His occupation was mining, West Virginia his home
It was just before noon, I was feeding the children,
Ben Moseley came running to give us the news.
Number eight was all flooded, many men were in danger
And we don't know their number, but we fear they're all doomed"
- Jean Ritchie
Coal mining is dangerous business and the people of the Appalachian Coalfields, from Tennessee to West Virginia to Pennsylvania, have come to expect disasters out of the mining industry. Mining is a job that's full of risks and packed with hard work. Miners have come to be proud of the work that they do which truly has had a great role in powering the United States for more than the last century. It's been work that's populated Appalachia with amazing people but has kicked up a lot of coal dust in the process all over our great state of West Virginia.
After 9/11, where I was less than 10 miles from the Pentagon and remember hearing fighter jets & helicopters flying over my house throughout that tense night. I never thought I would feel that tragic emotion that brought anger, anticipation, fear, mourning, and pride together into one horrendous stomach ache again. Then came the disaster at Massey's Upper Big Branch Mine.
I could not work all week. I could not stop refreshing the WSAZ news page and the Coal Tattoo Blog for updates. I could not get my mind off the basic question of whether there is good in the world where 29 hardworking men are killed because of Massey Energy's disregard for miner safety. I could not get off the phone talking with students I work with and my own family members who were grieving like I was for these men and holding out hope that the four "missing miners" would be found alive. They were not. And we continued to mourn through the weekend.
The Senate approved $140 billion in extended tax breaks and unemployment benefits on Wednesday in a largely partisan vote.
The bill was approved on a 62-36 vote, with six Republicans joining most Democrats in backing it.
Senate Democrats are calling the measure a jobs bill, though it includes tax breaks extended by Congress on a near-annual basis as well as a fix to Medicare payments for doctors that lawmakers also have previously extended.
It's the second package of legislation that Senate Democrats have labeled as a jobs bill this year, joining a $15 billion measure approved by the Senate last week.
GOP Sens. Kit Bond (Mo.), Susan Collins (Maine), Olympia Snowe (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), David Vitter (La.) and George Voinovich (Ohio) voted for the bill.
We're a long way off from an economic recovery that puts everyone back to work who wants to work.
Thank you for continuing to provide relief to those who need it in this time of great need.
We're a little over a month away from an election year. All three Congressional Representatives from West Virginia are up for re-election. In state house races, all of the House of Delegates are up for election as are half of the State Senate. Also, there's more than a few politicians already positioning themselves for a future move... be it a run for Governor or U.S. Senate in 2012.
Unemployment in West Virginia has just about doubled in the 12 months. It's now at levels we haven't seen in 15 years. Even the most optimistic forecasts say this "jobless recovery" has another year of high unemployment ahead.
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
In this economic environment, politicians should focus on one issue: jobs, jobs, and jobs.
Health care reform is good for jobs in the long term--when the public option kicks in we will now longer have to worry about whether our employers offers health insurance or not--we can start our own business, change jobs, and go back to school without worries of being able to find health care coverage. But, that's not enough to reduce unemployment today.
Addressing climate change is good for jobs--investments in cleaner energy, investments in conservation and efficiency, these all create jobs. But--and this is a big BUT--these jobs will only appear in West Virginia once political and civic leaders make a strong effort to attract them here.
A Winning Record
If you're running for office next year, the very best record you could run on is bringing new green jobs to your constituents. There's a lot of skepticism right now that West Virginia is going to successfully make the transition to a new energy economy.
Local, state, and federal government spend a lot of money in West Virginia. Putting some of this money towards energy efficiency and conservation improvements in the extensive government real estate holdings would create new green jobs.
I bet a lot of voters would respond better to positive solutions instead of scare-mongering about the potential for continued job losses due to circumstances beyond our control.
I stand by my prediction from June, 2009 ("What could 1,000 West Virginians accomplish in 1,000 Days?") that before the "2010 mid-terms elections, the Democratic Congress and the Obama administration will pass a second stimulus bill focused on job creation."
Job Losses & State Fiscal Crises: Time for More Federal Stimulus Spending
The numbers from this month's job report were brutal: 263,000 payroll jobs lost in a month and the unemployment rate hit 9.8 percent. Since the pre-recession peak, the economy has lost 7.2 million jobs and overall hours worked have now declined by 8.6 percent. A record share of the unemployed (35.6 percent) are “long-term unemployed” and have been out of work for at least six months. (See graph courtesy of Center for American Progress)
Public Layoffs Threatening to Make Things Worse: One of the most disturbing parts of this trend is that the government sector lost 53,000 jobs in September, compared with a loss of 19,000 jobs in August. This is tied to the fiscal crisis hitting the states.
The initial federal recovery funds from the Spring have held off far worse cuts than were originally projected; in fact, before last month, state and local government layoffs had amounted to just 110,000 jobs lost over two years. However, projections are that fewer recovery funds will be available for fiscal year 2011, so government job losses will inevitably mount as states seek to balance their budgets going into next year.
Avoiding Fifty Herbert Hoovers with a New Stimulus: History tells us that government should be hiring when the private sector is laying people off to act to act as a counter-cyclical economic lever on the economy. A wide range of economists, including Nobel Laureates Paul Krugman, Robert Solow, and Paul Samuelson, are now calling for an additional federal stimulus to counter these jobs losses.
Back in February, as we noted at the time, the U.S. House had originally proposed tens of billions of dollars more in help for the states in the recovery plan, but those funds were cut during U.S. Senate negotiations to overcome a filibuster. But this reflects the fact that even then, many understood that more help to the states was needed to deal with the severity of the recession we face.
Already the Obama administration is talking about a broader transportation bill, extensions of a homebuyer tax credit and extended unemployment benefits as part of additional spending to deal with the economic crisis. All of these are necessary, but priority should be to extend further aid to the states to stem the layoffs of teachers, nurses, and public safety officers which is needed not just to avoid further unemployment but is critical to provide the services to a public in even greater need of help during this economic crisis. And other funds should go directly towards additional forward-looking job creation programs tied to green jobs, broadband deployment and rebuilding our overall infrastructure to both employ people in the short-term while improving the global economic competitiveness of our communities over the longer-term.
A jobless recovery is not a recovery. It is a temporary sop for the already wealthy. The only path for long-term financial stability is full employment. It's both the right thing to focus on economically and morally.
Gazing into the crystal ball of economic prognostications, there are strong indications we are headed for a jobless recovery. Even in the best case scenario, we are looking at many months (if not years) of persistently high unemployment rates.
The premise of this diary is thus: I predict between now and the 2010 mid-terms elections, the Democratic Congress and the Obama administration will pass a second stimulus bill focused on job creation. It will include a program similar to the depression era Works Progress Administration.
1,000 West Virginians in 1,000 Days
One of the lessons learned from the last stimulus package is "shovel-ready" projects have the best chance of getting funded. With that in mind, now is a good time to start thinking about project proposals to prepared in advance of the next stimulus bill. (Does your favorite organization have any old grant proposals it can dust off and update?)
Most important, what kinds of projects can we do here in West Virginia with a nearly unlimited local labor pool? Let your imagination run wild.
I could see major projects hiring up to 1,000 West Virginians each for an average of 1,000 days (about 3 years). If you devote the first 10% of the time to job-specific training, that's 3-months of intensive training followed by 30 months of work in a local community.
Here are a just a few ideas that spring to mind:
* Make home and community visits for basic screening for major preventable and manageable mental and physical health problems.
* Test water sources for all streams, rivers, and a sample of wells all across the state to develop a baseline of water quality.
* Perform energy audits on homes and provide energy efficiency and green energy installation services.
* Provide more intensive out-patient and community-based services for veterans, disabled, recovering, and other marginalized populations current at risk for "falling through the cracks" of public and private services.
* Assist schools in developing new programs to involve parents, assist under-served populations, and at-risk students (e.g., before, after school programs, etc.).
I'm sure there are all sorts of great ideas people have for how an otherwise idle labor pool can be gainfully employed for the public good. What would you like to see 1,000 West Virginians do for 1,000 days?
West Virginia has lost a lot of jobs in the past year. Here's a list of Unemployment Rates, by Metro Area that include WV. (The first number is the April, 2009 unemployment rate, the second is year-over-year change since April, 2008).
Metro Area State - April Jobless Rate - Change from April 2008
Weirton-Steubenville WV-OH 11.7% +6.1
Hagerstown-Martinsburg MD-WV 9.3% +4.7
Parkersburg-Marietta-Vienna
WV-OH 9.2% +4.7
Wheeling WV-OH 8.6% +3.8
Winchester VA-WV 8% +4.5
Cumberland MD-WV 7.8% +3.1
Huntington-Ashland WV-KY-OH 7.4% +3
Charleston WV 6.8% +3.2
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria
DC-VA-MD-WV 5.6% +2.6
Morgantown WV 4.9% +2.1
Thing are tough all over, with the panhandles and other border regions especially hard hit. In the Eastern Panhandle only the core DC area still has relatively low unemployment, all of the exurb communities (those near Winchester, Hagerstown, Cumberland) have been hit much harder already.
What's it going to take to fix this economy? Noted bloggers New Deal democrat and bonddad ask if we need another WPA? (Follow the link for lots..and lots!... of charts and graphs.)
First, NDD points out (with lots of charts) how bad the current situation is:
Regardless of when this recession ends, the malaise of working and middle class America will not be relieved until wages increase, and employment rates return to a robust level. Since unemployment is a lagging indicator, the news on that score is grim. Almost every analyst believes that there will be another "jobless recovery" such as those that followed the 1990 and 2001 recessions.
Next up, bonddad proposes WPA as a solution:
So -- why do we need to look at the idea of creating another WPA? Because looking at the overall structure of the US economy there are no areas that appear to be ready to drive the economy into a recovery. Let me illustrate this point. Let's break down GDP into its four basic components -- personal consumption expenditures, gross domestic investment, exports and imports and government.
I agree with their conclusion:
While the overall trend of economic numbers is moderating that does not mean we have the driving force to get us out of the hole we're in. People don't just start spending money; businesses don't just start investing. Someone has to make the first move. And that's where Keynsean policies come into play. A WPA would accomplish several tasks. It would lower the overall long-term unemployment rate for a period of time. In addition, it would also increase domestic investment in areas we need like infra-structure. Finally, it would provide the force to get us out of the hole. While the economic numbers are getting better we need that "something" to get the numbers moving higher. And no other area of the economy appears ready to provide that push.
Obama's program works mainly through private employers, and is not focused on manual labor. If as it appears, we are about to undergo a sustained period of over 10% unemployment, there is a real and pressing need to get even the relatively unskilled into even manual labor cleaning, building, rebuilding and repairing our infrastructure and parks. they should not just rely on the states and the private sector. Congress and the Obama Administration should not wait. Both for real, and important symbolic reasons connecting them to the FDR legacy, they should enact legislation now laying the foundation to re-establish the WPA and the CCC immediately and for the duration of double-digit unemployment.
West Virginia University law professor Bob Bastress doesn't think the state Supreme Court is "as accessible or as good" as it was 10 years ago.
He said he is seeking a seat on the court this year to bring back the luster and respect he feels the court has lost.
"Part of my decision to run is based on my concerns about the current board," Bastress said. "It's not as accessible or as good as it was in the past.
"Its reputation has taken a hit in recent years, and I believe the people with ability should step forward."
He pointed out that the court has taken fewer cases up for review in recent months. "And not the ones they should have," Bastress said.
"The number of their signed opinions is way down," he noted. "The court lacks the luster is had 10 to 12 years ago. It had better judgment when (former justices) Tom Miller and Frank Cleckley were on the board."
WV's right wing Chicken Littles keep trying to create a climate of panic in the hope that this will give them the opening to unleash their version of economic shock and awe. Alas for them, the news isn't all bad all the time.
Workforce West Virginia says the state's unemployment rate dropped to its lowest recorded level in September.
The agency reported Monday that the rate dropped seven-tenths of a percent to 4.0 percent in September. That means the number of unemployed residents dropped by 5,700 to roughly 32,900.
About 4,800 jobs were added in the nonfarm employment sector, and there were gains of 600 jobs in the goods-producing sector and 4,200 in the service-providing sector.
We've got plenty of problems and lots of work to do but the sky is still up there...
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