Pacific Progressive

Kansas and Vermont Are the Latest Unemployment Insurance Debtors

by Olga Pierce, ProPublica

This article was published by ProPublica.

This graphic shows the unemployment fund reserves for Kansas and Vermont. Click the graphic to view our Unemployment Insurance Tracker.

Kansas and Vermont have become the two latest casualties of record unemployment insurance claims. Both states have exhausted their unemployment insurance trust funds and have turned to borrowing from the federal government to keep unemployment benefits flowing.

The 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands operate separate unemployment insurance systems, and have widely varying tax rates and benefits. While a few entered the recession with ample reserves, most had far less than the 18 months’ worthrecommended by the federal government.

To see how your state’s fund is faring, click here for our unemployment insurance tracker, which has the most recent data available about funds in all the states plus D.C.

Besides Kansas and Vermont, 27 other states and the Virgin Islands have together borrowed more than $30 billion. The federal loans are interest-free until 2011, but after interest kicks in, it must be paid from the states’ general funds, taking money away from roads, schools and other priorities.

The Math is Clear: Reducing Our Long-Term Federal Budget Deficit Means Enacting Comprehensive Health Care Reform Now

This material was published by the Center for American Progress.

By Michael Linden 

Download this memo (pdf)

Our nation’s long-term federal budget deficit problem is almost entirely a health care problem. Ten years ago, 17 percent of the federal budget was devoted to the two largest health care entitlement programs, Medicare and Medicaid. Over the past decade, that share
climbed to 21 percent and is expected to reach 25 percent by the end of this one.

After that point, if we do nothing, Medicare and Medicaid will continue to swallow up a larger and larger proportion of the federal budget, while simultaneously pushing overall government spending to new and unsustainable heights. The Congressional Budget Office projects that, under current policies, spending on Medicare and Medicaid in 2030 will exceed $3 trillion, close to four times as much as is spent today. The health care path that we find ourselves on will lead to a budget that is permanently and dangerously unbalanced.

The health care reform plans that are currently before Congress take the first step toward getting off of our current path and onto a more sustainable one. They do not solve the entire problem, but the plans do offer tens of billions of dollars worth of direct deficit reduction plus the promise of billions of dollars more in savings as the efficiency and modernization provisions kick in.

Anyone concerned about our long-term budget situation but opposed to the current health reform effort must answer this simple question: In the absence of health care reform, what other policies do you support that will reduce the deficit by at least $1 trillion over the next two decades?

What Gets Measured Gets Done: How a Supplemental Federal Poverty Measure Will Drive Smarter Policy

By Melissa Boteach, Jitinder Kohli 

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

Video: Fixing the Federal Poverty Measure

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” said New York City Mayor and business magnate Michael Bloomberg in 2007 describing the need for an updated poverty measure.

Now it seems he is getting his wish. The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that it will be developing an alternative way to measure poverty. This new method will better reflect the realities facing struggling families and ways in which current government programs can help them to get back on their feet. Unlike the traditional poverty measure, which is based in a 1960s reality, this supplemental measure will provide a more accurate accounting of household budgets and better determination of whether a family has enough resources to meet its most basic needs.

The Census Bureau has published a number of different alternative poverty data for many years and will continue to do so. But this new measure will accommodate updated research and modeling, and will be released alongside the traditional poverty data in 2011, ushering in a new public understanding of how well we are doing in ensuring that more families are able to meet basic needs and ultimately to join the middle class.

The new measure is not designed to replace the traditional measure. Eligibility for more than 80 public benefits is tied in some form to the current federal poverty measure, which will continue to be a useful tool in administering programs. Issuing a supplemental measure will not change eligibility for any government benefits or in and of itself cost the government one penny in additional poverty program expenditures.

Get Paid for Extra Solar Energy

If your home solar panels produce more electricity than you're using, your local utility will pay you cash or assign credits that you can redeem when needed, under a bill Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law last October.

Assembly Bill 920, known as the California Solar Surplus Act of 2009, went into effect Jan. 1, 2010. The law requires utilities to pay for extra electricity that consumers feed back into the grid. Therefore, if your home or business solar panels produce more electricity than you're using, your local utility will pay you cash or assign credits that you can redeem when needed. The law applies to Southern California Edison (SCE); and San Diego Gas and Electric Company (SDG&E) Net Energy Metering (NEM) customers, among others.

In essence, this means the state is helping more people to use solar power by not just saving money on electricity, but paying cash for the power they generate. The new law makes solar energy financially viable at the source, but it also encourages customers to conserve energy. Previously, under the state's net metering law, utility companies were allowed to receive surplus solar electricity from their customers for free.

Under the law, utilities will offer compensation to customers for any net surplus electricity they generate over a 12-month period. Utilities will either pay homeowners for the extra power, or they'll roll the credit over to the next year. Rates will be determined by the California Public Utilities Commission, and will likely be below retail, according to reports.

For more information, visit http://www.sce.com/customergeneration/nem-ab920?from=nemab920 orhttp://www.sdge.com/nem/questions_ab920.shtml#howmuch.

Slay the Sacred Tax Cow: It's Time to Say No to Wasteful Tax Credits

By Sima J. Gandhi

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

Slaying a sacred cow is messy and challenging. But the rewards can be tasty. As Mark Twain said, "Sacred cows make the best hamburger." Many tax breaks are sacred cows worth slaying.

The path to fiscal balance requires both prioritized spending and increased revenues, as CAP has previously noted. A smart way to cut spending is to eliminate wasteful programs and redirect funding streams away from programs that don't work to programs that do work. One form of spending that often is left out of the discussion, however, is spending that happens to be administered through the tax code.

These "tax expenditures"—the special credits, deductions, exclusions, exemptions, and preferential tax rates that deliver tax breaks—are functionally equivalent to government spending aimed at achieving a public policy objective. For example, say the government wants businesses to make their facilities more accessible to the disabled. It could offer businesses grants for taking action—government checks would subsidize building ramps, making restrooms wheelchair accessible, etc—or it could offer a "architectural barrier removal tax deduction" and a "disability access tax credit." These tax credits, just like a direct check, would subsidize businesses that make their facilities more accessible. The difference? Businesses get the money by paying lower taxes instead of through a government payment.

Spending administered through the tax code costs the federal government more than $1 trillion each year—which is more than 25 percent of its total spending.

Employment by the Numbers: The Economy is Recovering, but Americans Are Still Reeling

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

The economy may be standing on its own two feet again, but many Americans still aren't. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act pulled us out of the Great Recession, but now it's going to take policies that ensure strong job growth to stabilize this momentum.

The government will need to step in with a jobs bill that provides direct spending to offset the drop in private consumption and help customers and businesses ramp up their spending. When demand for goods and services begins to grow, businesses will hire employees and become more confident in investing. The numbers below give a look at how the labor landscape looks today and how continued legislative efforts on job creation would help American workers.

Many Americans are still reeling from the Great Recession

8.4 million: The number of jobs lost since the start of the recession in December 2007.

35,000: Average monthly job losses from November 2009 to January 2010, but this is down from an average monthly job loss rate of 726,000 for the same months before the stimulus was passed in February 2009.

Six: The number of unemployed workers vying for every single job opening.

Some Americans have been hit harder than others

9.7 percent: The overall unemployment rate.

15.6 percent: The unemployment rate for those without at least a high school diploma in February 2010.

15.8 percent: The African-American unemployment rate in February 2010.

25.0 percent: The youth unemployment rate in February 2010.

The recovery is beginning to take hold ...

Taking On the Tool Belt Recession: Energy Efficient Retrofits Can Provide a Real Help for Construction Unemployment

By Bracken Hendricks, Matt Golden 

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

Download this memo (pdf)

See also: Interactive Map: The Tool Belt Recession

Today, 2.1 million construction workers are out of a job. Jobs are down 38 percent since 2006 in residential construction alone. This “tool belt recession” in the construction trades spills over to other parts of the economy as well. Because of declining demand for construction many manufacturing industry sectors that produce building products are currently operating at close to half their production capacity.

As devastating as these numbers are, however, the unemployment figures for construction are likely an understatement of the problem due to the large number of selfemployed construction workers that do not show up in payroll statistics, so the jobs picture is even more urgent than even these data suggest. Further, more than 90 percent of contractors in the construction industry are small businesses—another hard-hit segment of the economy.

This memo looks at data from the Census Bureau, the Federal Reserve, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics to demonstrate the urgent conditions facing blue-collar workers in America today and to show the capacity of the home performance retrofit industry to quickly scale in creating good American jobs in construction.

This analysis clearly demonstrates that in addition to having an employment pool in construction that is ready to move quickly, the product manufacturers serving the industry have significant unused production capacity as well. So if demand for building products were to rise, U.S. manufacturers would quickly respond by putting laid off employees back to work.

Labor constitutes a very significant share of any remodeling job, but more than half of every dollar spent also flows to retail and manufacturing through product purchases. This means a program that incentivizes new construction investment through energy improvements would create jobs not only within the construction industry directly, but in retail, manufacturing, and other local economic activity as well.

Understanding the tool belt recession

Unemployment is About Families, Too: A Look at Low-Income Men and Unemployment

By Joy Moses 

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

The economy continues to show some signs of being on the mend as the economy benefitsfrom the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but today’s unemployment numbers continue to demonstrate how badly workers are faring—especially if they are low-wage or low-skilled men. Those with the least amount of education had an unemployment rate of 15.6 percent in February as compared to the general rate, which remained static at 9.7 percent. The unemployment extension that was signed by President Barack Obama earlier this week and the pending jobs bill should provide some relief. But low-income men are facing serious challenges that reach beyond the recession and affect their children and families, as well.

Antipoverty programs are often built around serving women and children, leaving many low-income men out in the cold. Policies focused on children and families must include a greater focus on men, being mindful of the fact that many of these men are fathers who can and do make positive contributions to their children’s lives while also helping to lift the economic burden from the backs of low-income women who far too often bear the majority of the costs associated with childrearing. This is simply a statement of the obvious for some. But many Americans continue to carry negative stereotypes about poor men, especially if they are people of color, lack stable employment, face difficulties providing for their families financially, have a criminal record, or struggle with a combination of these factors.

Federal policies should be comprehensive and aimed at reconnecting the disconnected. Far too many men, and especially African-American men, are disconnected from employment, but also from society and their families.

Getting to the Bottom of Fracking

By Sarah Collins, Tom Kenworthy

This article was  published by the Center for American Progress.

Hydraulic fracturing, also called “fracking” or “fracing,” is a widely used but somewhat controversial oil and gas drilling technique that is opening up new energy possibilities in the United States. It’s also starting to draw a lot of high-level attention in Washington, and this scrutiny is appropriate and overdue.

Fracking has been used in combination with improved horizontal well-drilling technology to help open vast new natural shale gas reserves from Texas to western New York state that were previously locked in deep underground shale formations. Those discoveries have stirred debate on whether natural gas can serve as a bridge fuel to a lower-carbon future by shifting electricity generation from coal-burning power plants to natural gas plants, which emit half as much carbon pollution and no mercury. These newly available natural gas sources could be global warming game changer if gas production can occur cleanly.

But the widespread use of fracking has also raised concerns about potential contamination of drinking water supplies. The fracking fluid that is pumped into wells at high pressure to fracture rock and release natural gas contains sand and vast amounts of water in addition to chemicals that can be toxic to humans. Preventing underground leaks of fracking fluid requires proper installation of well casings and careful monitoring. Surface water contamination is also a concern because once drilling is completed the used fluids are brought to the surface and often stored in ponds that can leak.

The Story So Far on the Gov't Loan Modification Program

by Paul Kiel, ProPublica

This article was published by ProPublica.

We’ve created a resource page on the government’s loan modification program that puts all of our reporting in one place. Take a look. For those looking for a rundown, below is our summary of the program and the problems it has encountered.

The administration’s foreclosure prevention program began operation last April. The $75 billion program, called Making Home Affordable, focuses on reducing the monthly mortgage payments of struggling homeowners.

Mortgages that are owned or guaranteed by government wards Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae are automatically eligible. Other mortgages are eligible only if the servicer has signed a contract with the Treasury Department. More than 100 servicers have signed up. Mortgage servicers are the companies that specialize in collecting payments and handling individual accounts; they are frequently subsidiaries of banks, but sometimes are stand-alone companies.

We at ProPublica have been closely covering the problems that homeowners have encountered since the program’s launch. Delays and frustration have been common: Homeowners and housing counselors frequently complain that servicers lose financial documents and make mistakes. Many struggling homeowners have waited several months for an answer from their mortgage servicers.

NFL Negotiations 101: A Primer on the NFL Player-Owner Contract Dispute

By Casey Gerald, David Madland

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

Download this memo (pdf)

What are the issues in the contract dispute between the owners and players?

The primary issue is how to divide up the money the league generates. Players currently receive 59 percent of all league revenue, and owners get the rest.

Owners argue that 59 percent of total revenues is too much and say they need a greater share to help the league grow. “Clubs must spend significant and growing amounts on stadium construction, operations, and improvements to respond to the interests and demands of our fans,” the owners wrote on the league website. “As a result, under the terms of the current agreement, the clubs’ incentive to invest in the game is threatened.”

NFL players note that the league and its owners have prospered immensely under the current labor contract. As the NFL Players Association Executive Director DeMaurice Smithargues, “We do know the NFL generated in excess of $8 billion last year. We know that the average team has grown by 400 percent in 10 years. What we don’t understand is what is wrong with the current deal when those facts exist.”

What happens if there is no agreement?

Climate Patriots: A Military Perspective on Energy, Climate Change and National Security

from the Project on National Security, Energy and Climate at the Pew Charitable Trusts. 

Climate Patriots addresses how America's dependence on foreign oil puts our armed forces in harm's way and how the effects of climate change could lead to more humanitarian missions and political instability.

Lack of Robust Job Creation is a Worrisome Trend - Congress Needs to Address Labor Market Problem

By Heather Boushey

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

The key story from today’s new data on the conditions in the labor market is that there’s little change. Employers shed 36,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent. This marks the fourth month of negligible changes in employment, and as of yet we’ve only seen one month of positive job growth. The bulk of the job losses were in government employment as local governments shed 31,000 jobs, 24,100 of those in education. Continued help for the unemployed and policies to promote robust job creation, including aid to help states maintain employment, remain our most important public policy goals.

The east coast’s “snowmaggedon” occurred during the week of the establishment survey and thus job gains may be underreported as firms may have delayed new hires to the following weeks. Looking at the detailed industry jobs picture, job losses in sectors such as construction and transportation, especially “scenic tours,” may have been affected by the storms, but that cannot account for the overall lackluster jobs picture. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the household survey—the data where individuals report their labor market status—should not be significantly affected by the weather disruptions.

At this point in the economic cycle a lack of robust job creation is a worrisome trend for workers and for our economy. Given the breadth and depth of the recession, our economy needs a sharp upturn in job creation to come out of its current malaise. The economy has shed 8.4 million jobs since the recession began in December 2007 and the economy would need to add about 250,000 each month for the next three years just to regain the jobs lost.

We're Talking a Good Game, But It's Time to Play - Where is the United States in Relation to Other Countries on Clean-

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

Kate Gordon talks about how the United States measures up against other countries on clean energy investments and how we can get back ahead of the pack.  

Our Working Nation: How Working Women Are Reshaping America's Families and Economy and What it Means for Policymakers

By Heather Boushey, Ann O'Leary

This article was published by the Center for American Progress.

Read the full report (pdf)

Download the executive summary (pdf)

When we look back over the 20th century and try to understand what’s happened to American workers and their families, the movement of women out of the home and into paid employment stands out as one of the most important transformations. Women are now half of all workers on U.S payrolls, two-thirds of mothers are bringing home at least a quarter of the family’s earnings, and 4 in 10 mothers are either the sole breadwinner (a single, working mother) or are bringing home as much or more than their spouse (see Figure 1). This increase in women’s workforce participation and contribution to the family income has been dramatic across all racial and class lines, but is particularly striking among low-income women who are now primary breadwinners in two-thirds of their families.

The movement of women into employment has transformed how we work and live. Yet government, business, educational, and other social institutions all around us are not keeping pace. Consider these everyday realities faced by so many families across the nation:

Inside the home, the majority of families no longer have someone to deal with life’s everyday humdrum details or emergencies—from helping the kids with homework to doing the grocery shopping, or from being home for a sudden home repair emergency to picking up a sick child from school or taking an ailing parent to the doctor.