Press Releases and Newsletters
Hoyle to retire (News and Observer)
Hoyle to retire (News and Observer)
State Sen. David Hoyle, one of the most powerful lawmakers in the Senate, plans to retire.
Hoyle, 70, a Gaston County Democrat who has been in the Senate for 18 years and is consistently placed near the top in effectiveness rankings of legislators, said he will finish his current term, but won’t run again.
“Public service has always been a central part of my life and my commitment to our community and our state remains strong,” Hoyle said in a news release. “Having had the honor and privilege to serve my community and state in every way that has been asked of me, beginning 45 years ago as mayor of Dallas, it is now the time and the season to welcome the next phase of my life.”
Hoyle, who rooms with Senate Leader Marc Basnight in Raleigh during sessions, is one of the leading voices for business interests in the Senate. His district is competitive and his decision not to run again gives Republicans a legitimate shot at claiming the seat.
Hoyle’s decision continues what is shaping up to be a changing of the Democratic guard in the Senate chamber. Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand is leaving the chamber this month. Sen. R.C. Soles Jr., the longest serving member, has not yet announced whether he intends to run again, but has been plagued with personal issues that make a run difficult.
Soles, Rand and Hoyle represent three of the longest-serving and most powerful lawmakers in the chamber. Another Democrat, Sen. Julia Boseman of Wilmington, has also announced she won’t seek re-election.
Boseman’s district is also considered a swing district where Republicans or Democrats could be competitive.
Submitted by bniolet on December 9, 2009 – 2:32pm.
Summit meets to discuss states’ educational challenges (News Channel 14)
Summit meets to discuss states’ educational challenges (News Channel 14)
Charlotte-Leaders representing agencies from North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia gathered Friday to discuss how to level the educational playing field. The summit, sponsored by the James Hunt Institute, included crime fighting groups, after school care givers and health care groups.
The groups all aim to improve the lives of low income children by giving them an equal opportunity for success.
“There are tremendous problems that a lot of these kids face that you just don’t realize when you see their cute faces in the classroom,” David Lavoie, of the Greater Enrichment Program, said.
Leaders say the problems they’re looking to combat just get worse in the classroom. According to the Alliance for Excellent Education, North Carolina’s graduation rate is 63 percent. That’s below the national average, and approximately 46,700 students dropped out of high school last year.
The summit met with aims to recognize and possibly reallocate the resources available to meet the academic, mental and physical needs of students after school.
“Ideally, there would be a team of people who would not only identify the kids who are at risk, but the kinds of supports that those kids need, kind of a one-stop shopping,” Judith Rizzo, of the Hunt Institute, said.
Data shows that high school dropouts are more likely to commit crimes and less likely to have access to adequate health insurance, both of which cost tax payers millions of dollars a year.
“The idea is, don’t wait until these kids end up in that system,” Rizzo said. “What can we do to prevent that trajectory?”
The north Carolina group agreed to host a series of regional meetings. They hope to lobby support from influential state groups such as the Metropolitan Mayors Coalition and the NAACP.
U.S. CITIES SEE SHARP INCREASES IN THE NEED FOR FOOD ASSISTANCE; DECREASES IN INDIVIDUAL HOMELESSNESS (Press Release)
U.S. CITIES SEE SHARP INCREASES IN THE NEED FOR FOOD ASSISTANCE; DECREASES IN INDIVIDUAL HOMELESSNESS (Press Release)
Mayors Issue Annual Report on Hunger, Homelessness in Cities
Washington, D.C. – In the last year, U.S. cities have seen the sharpest increase in the demand for hunger assistance since 1991, an increase in family homelessness and a decrease or leveling in individual homelessness, according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) report on the status of Hunger and Homelessness in 27 cities in America (listed below) that was released today at a press conference at the USCM headquarters in Washington, D.C..
For more than 23 years, The Conference of Mayors has documented the magnitude of the issues of hunger and homelessness in our nation‟s cities, as well as efforts cities are making to address these challenges.
“At this time of historic economic crisis, the issues of hunger and homelessness in America are more prevalent than ever. Cities are the front lines where these effects are felt first, which is why mayors have been proactive in implementing local initiatives in their communities to take care of our most vulnerable residents,” said Sacramento (CA) Mayor Kevin Johnson who serves on the USCM Hunger and Homelessness Task Force and participated in the press conference.
The mayors‟ report shows that on average, the need for emergency food assistance increased by 26 percent from last year. Cities also reported an increase in food requests from middle class households that used to donate to food pantries, as well as an increase in the frequency of repeat requests from those needing help. When asked to report on the three main causes of hunger, respondents cited unemployment, housing costs and low wages respectively.
To combat hunger, many cities have instituted programs to address the challenge over the long term. Examples of successful initiatives include gleaning food that would otherwise go to waste to supply food banks; programs that serve children during the summer and on weekends when they are not receiving subsidized meals at school; food banks offering greater diversity of foods to serve a diverse cultural-client base; and food pantries that help recipients to determine their eligibility for food stamps. When looking to 2010, cities anticipate having a difficult time meeting the high demand for food assistance in the future because of high unemployment and high costs of living, in addition to the impact of state and local budget cuts.
Gastonia (NC) Mayor Jennifer Stultz, who Co-Chairs the Conference‟s Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness and who presented the hunger data said, “Although 87% of our nation‟s wealth is generated in our nation‟s cities, hunger and homelessness persist in most of our country‟s cities urban centers. Even working families are increasingly at risk for hunger and homelessness as a result of the crippled economy and rising unemployment and foreclosures. As mayors, it is our responsibility to ensure that those most in need in America are the people we put first.”
In the area of homelessness, nineteen cities (76 percent), reported an increase in family homelessness, while homelessness among individuals decreased or stayed the same for 16 of the 25 cities (64 percent). Most of the cities that experienced drops in individual homelessness attribute the decline to a policy strategy by federal, state and local governments of instituting 10-year plans to end chronic homelessness among single adults. Not surprisingly, the recession and a lack of affordable housing were cited as the top causes of family homelessness in the surveyed cities.
“This report highlights the complex, interrelated factors that contribute to homelessness,” said Mayor Johnson, who has launched Sacramento Steps Forward, a major program to combat homelessness in his city. “We must deal with these
issues collectively to make sustainable impact because communities cannot handle these challenges alone. We need all levels of government, as well as the private sector, to partner with us and empower our most vulnerable citizens. ”
This year‟s survey takes into account several programs which provide additional funding to fight hunger and homelessness through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Those programs include: The Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP), the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) and The Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program (HPRP), and the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP).
According to the survey, cities are using funding from the HPRP to develop central intake systems for homeless services, coordinate services more closely with surrounding areas, or offer homeless prevention assistance for the first time. Of note, eighteen cities reported that the HPRP will „fundamentally change the way
U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan, who also attended the press conference, spoke about the report findings, “Our nation‟s mayors are on the front lines in the battle against hunger and homelessness. President Obama and I join the U.S. Conference of Mayors in recognizing that we must change the conventional way we address homelessness in this country. The Recovery Act‟s $1.5 billion Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program will help communities move away from simply reacting to homelessness toward a strategy of preventing it from occurring in the first place. It is extremely encouraging to see the significant assistance the Recovery Act is playing in feeding and housing those in need and in improving services.” Donovan also serves as Chair of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Prepared by Abt Associates, the report contains individual profiles for each city in the survey including the median household income, the unemployment rate, the foreclosure rate, the percentage of people in the city who fall below in the poverty line and contact information for service providers. The report is based on data collected from The U.S. Conference of Mayors Hunger and Homelessness Information Questionnaire, completed by cities that reported on persons receiving food and shelter services over a one-year period from October 2008 to September 2009. A copy of the report and survey questionnaire can be downloaded at The Conference of Mayors website at www.usmayors.org.
The 27 participating cities in this survey are members of The U.S. Conference of Mayors Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness and include the following:
Boston, MA
Charleston, SC
Charlotte, NC
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Dallas, TX
Denver, CO
Des Moines, IA
Detroit, MI
Gastonia, NC
Kansas City, MO
Los Angeles, CA
Louisville, KY
Miami, FL
Minneapolis, MN
Nashville, TN
Norfolk, VA
Philadelphia, PA
Phoenix, AZ
Portland, OR
Providence, RI
Sacramento, CA
Salt Lake City, UT
San Francisco, CA
Seattle, WA
St. Paul, MN
Trenton, NJ
The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are 1,139 such cities in the country today, each represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the Mayor.
Ad campaign calls for action on highway bill (Pit & Quarr)
Ad campaign calls for action on highway bill (Pit & Quarr)
As President Obama prepared to hold a national jobs summit on Dec. 3, 28 national associations and labor groups of the Transportation Construction Coalition (TCC) launched a new multi-media ad campaign calling on Congress and the administration to create thousands of long-term, sustainable American jobs by passing a new six-year highway/transit authorization bill. The current investment law – the Safe, Accountable, Flexible Transportation Equity Act-A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) – expired on Sept. 30.
The TCC ran 60-second radio ads on Washington, D.C., news talk station WTOP, highlighting that construction industry unemployment is twice the national average. A companion Internet ad was being produced for online placement. “Transportation investment creates jobs, gets America moving again and helps lay the road to economic recovery. Tell Congress to pass the six-year highway and transit program bill now,” the ads proclaim.
A “Jobs Check List” print ad also ran in the The Washington Post Federal Page. Over the past few weeks, the ad, which was also developed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and American Public Transportation Association, has been appearing in widely read Capitol Hill publications such as Roll Call, National Journal, Congress Daily, Congressional Quarterly and Politico.
The transportation design and construction industry has been hard hit by the recession. While the economic stimulus law likely saved thousands of construction-related jobs in 2009, it was not enough to prevent widespread layoffs among road and transit construction business. The outlook for next year is bleak, too, absent congressional action, TCC says. According to a recent nationwide survey of more than 500 highway and transit contractors, 44 percent anticipate having to lay off additional permanent employees in 2010 because of overall economic conditions.
Dec 7, 2009
Perdue wants to get state moving (News and Observer)
Perdue wants to get state moving (News and Observer)
Gov. Bev Perdue’s topic Tuesday was like the 1987 movie: “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” — or how to move people and goods around more efficiently.
So the governor showed up at a football field-size warehouse near Raleigh-Durham Airport, to sign an executive order creating The Governor’s Logistics Task Force, Rob Christensen reports.
The task force is a 27-member group, headed by Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton that will look at ways to make the highways, airports, sea ports and rail facilities work together more efficiently.
The governor didn’t outline how she planned to do this since there is little extra money in the state coffers for new spending. But both Perdue and Dalton said that despite North Carolina’s reputation for being a business-friendly state, it must continually look for ways to create more jobs and make the state more attractive for industry.
Perdue said most businesses that she recruits want to know about airports and highways.
The announcement was made at the Raleigh headquarters of Longistics, a shipping and warehousing company where Perdue watched Slim Jims being packaged.
Submitted by bniolet on December 8, 2009 – 3:32pm.
Gov. Perdue Signs Executive Order Creating Logistics Task Force (Press Release)
Gov. Perdue Signs Executive Order Creating Logistics Task Force (Press Release)
RALEIGH – Gov. Perdue today signed Executive Order No. 32, establishing the Governor’s Logistics Task Force. The task force will make recommendations to ensure that people and goods are able to move efficiently across North Carolina. The order was signed at a signing ceremony at the Raleigh headquarters of Longistics, a full-service provider of global logistics services.
“We must have an efficient and effective transportation system to move our people, to create jobs, and to be sure our economy is globally competitive in the 21st century,” said Perdue. “Transportation is a major part of why North Carolina continues to be named the #1 state in America for business.”
The Logistics Task Force will review transportation systems in North Carolina including roads and highways, airports, ports, multimodal transportation and railroads. The review will focus on giving North Carolina a competitive advantage in economic development by maximizing existing transportation systems and defining priorities for future transportation investments. Lt. Governor Walter Dalton will serve as Chair of the Logistics Task Force.
“The Logistics Task Force is going to preserve and create jobs,” said Dalton. “The ability to move goods, people and information efficiently and cost effectively is crucial to existing companies and emerging industries in North Carolina.”
The Logistics Task Force is part of Gov. Perdue’s JobsNOW initiative to aggressively create jobs, train and retrain its workforce, and lay the foundation for a strong and sustainable economic future.
###
NCDOT Financial Update to Joint Legislative Oversight Committee
NCDOT Financial Update to Joint Legislative Oversight Committee
You can read the live tweets at http://twitter.com/MetroMayors.
Or see the Power Point by clicking here.
Mayor Foy leaving legacy of collaboration (News and Observer)
Mayor Foy leaving legacy of collaboration (News and Observer)
CHAPEL HILL Meeting with elected officials from neighboring Carrboro and Orange County last week, Mayor Kevin Foy explained why Chapel Hill’s bus system declined to merge with the Triangle Transit Authority in 2003 and why the town’s public library won’t merge with Orange County’s library system now.
“Chapel Hill,” he said, “cannot afford to lower its standards.”
That’s an attitude that has often put Foy and the rest of the Chapel Hill Town Council at odds with real estate developers and the N.C. Department of Transportation. But, as Foy steps down Monday after eight years as mayor, observers say he leaves a legacy of both innovation and collaboration.
“He’s managed to keep a civil and productive process in place with a group of very strong-minded council members,” said former Chapel Hill Mayor Rosemary Waldorf, who stymied Foy’s first run for mayor in 1995.
“Kevin’s a nice guy,” she said. “You can always get so much more done if people sense you’re a person of good will and an open mind.”
Under Foy’s leadership, Chapel Hill has tried things some cities wouldn’t. It has built a generous subsidized housing program, a collaborative approach to town-gown relations and an award-winning public-transit system.
“Chapel Hill has an outsized role … in helping define the future of the Triangle,” Foy said. “It’s able to be experimental. It’s able to be agile in trying out new ideas, and if they don’t work, toss ’em.”
In each of the past two years, Chapel Hill Transit, with its 7 million annual riders, has garnered awards for Foy from the U.S. Conference of Mayors. But other experiments failed, such as a landlord licensing program in Foy’s second year as mayor. And the jury is still out on others, such as the town’s policy of 15 percent affordable housing and its pursuit of mixed-use development along transit corridors.
Foy, 53, has championed work force housing, but the Community Home Trust, which manages dozens of homes subsidized by developers at the town’s demand, has complained that the resulting small condos don’t meet working families’ needs. The town has had to tinker with the policy.
Similarly, the Town Council has had to rethink its support for dense, transit-oriented development amid citizen complaints about East 54, a 600,000-square-foot office/retail/condo complex under construction just east of UNC-Chapel Hill’s campus.
The council permitted up to six stories amid existing one- and two-story buildings along N.C. 54 in order to build a dense population across the street from a hoped-for regional transit stop near Finley Golf Course. Of course, that presumes the construction of light-rail or some other fixed-guideway system at some point.
Former Town Councilman Joe Capowski said Foy had to make decisions anticipating the future, citing the intense planning effort on the Carolina North satellite campus as an example.
“The mayor does something and then the results show up 15 years later,” said Capowski, whose second and final term overlapped with Foy’s first from 1997 to 1999.
Making transit a priority
State Rep. Deborah Ross, a Raleigh Democrat, has welcomed Foy’s support for a half-cent sales tax across the Triangle region to support light rail. But she said Chapel Hill’s fare-free bus system has been just as important in creating momentum because regional transit will depend on convenient local bus routes. Foy, in fact, pushed legislators to allow money from the half-cent tax to support local bus systems, not just regional rail.
“Rail isn’t going to get everybody to their house,” Ross said. “We are going to need to have an attractive, reliable, inexpensive bus service, and Chapel Hill has been a leader on that, and it’s a model we all need to learn from.”
Durham Mayor Bill Bell agreed.
“It’s a model that shows to me that if you provide opportunities for people to ride and if it’s easy and convenient, then people will make use of it, especially if you make it fare-free,” Bell said.
Bell said Foy made transportation a priority as chairman of the N.C. Metropolitan Mayor’s Coalition, arguing for the half-cent tax and supporting an effort to keep NCDOT from shifting maintenance responsibility on major roads to municipalities.
Presiding over an extensive public-comment process, Foy also ensured that transit was a priority as UNC-CH planned its Carolina North campus.
With Foy’s leadership, the council convened a Horace Williams Citizens Committee, a Leadership Advisory Committee and direct negotiations with the UNC-CH Board of Trustees in the years leading up to a development agreement between the university and the town – a collaborative planning instrument never used in North Carolina on a public project as large as the new campus. The agreement incorporated transportation-related concerns brought by the citizens group Neighbors for Responsible Growth in the last days of the negotiations.
NRG leader and former Town Council member Julie McClintock credits Foy for convening the Horace Williams Citizens Committee to let residents have their say five years ahead of the university’s master plan, ensuring there weren’t very many last-minute challenges.
“It was perfect timing,” she said.
Town-gown relations
Since then, UNC-CH leaders have also collaborated with the town on the potential siting of a new men’s homeless shelter and plans to redevelop the University Square shopping center and Granville Towers at the downtown entrance to campus.
“UNC has bent over backwards to be good to the town, and that is mainly because of Kevin Foy’s relationships with the chancellors,” Capowski said.
Former Chancellor James Moeser, who stepped down last year, said he and Foy had met at least once a month over the previous three or four years.
“We had an understanding that we would be totally honest with each other and we would never surprise each other,” Moeser said. Foy helped the university figure out how to share plans with the public, he said.
Developer Roger Perry, whose Meadowmont project on the Durham-Orange county line raised Foy’s hackles in the late 1990s and launched the mayor’s political career, said the collaborative approach Foy learned over the years brought town-gown relations to an “all-time high.” Perry led the UNC-CH trustees as they negotiated the Carolina North agreement, a process that ended in a unanimous vote.
“That was a stunning achievement,” Moeser said. “That was beyond what I thought was possible.”
“My guess is that Carolina North will prove to be a major part of
[email protected] or 919-932-8760
Published Sun, Dec 06, 2009 02:00 AM
Modified Sun, Dec 06, 2009 04:38 AM
CHARLOTTE MAYOR-ELECT PREPARES TO TAKE OFFICE (Biz Journal)
CHARLOTTE MAYOR-ELECT PREPARES TO TAKE OFFICE (Biz Journal)
A month after Anthony Foxx won election as Charlotte’s new mayor, the Democrat is poised to take office on Monday night.
Foxx stopped by the Charlotte Center City Partners board meeting yesterday afternoon and then took his daughter to The Square to light the Christmas tree outside Bank of America’s headquarters. While he tried to keep pace with his daughter, Foxx also offered his thoughts on what’s ahead.
During the past four weeks, he’s “been working on reducing the poetry of the campaign into the prose of actual action steps.”
On Monday, Foxx plans to outline some of his initial goals when he takes the oath of office.
At the same time, a new City Council will be sworn in, with Democrats holding an 8-3 advantage — and both Foxx and Republican mayoral rival John Lassiter will no longer be councilmen. Their departures are a marked shift, as both men carried great influence on the council and led or served on key committees. Of the two new members on council, Democrats David Howard and Patrick Cannon, Foxx noted only Howard is without council experience; Cannon served six terms beginning in 1993 before leaving politics for four years.
The mayor-elect emphasized the importance of city government playing an active role in trying to boost employment in the months ahead, picking up on a constant campaign theme. Using the mayor’s bully pulpit and forging more public collaboration between the city, the Charlotte Chamber and the Charlotte Regional Partnership are among the suggestions he has in mind.
“I’ve got some ideas about that,” Foxx said with a grin, “but I can’t tell you about that until Monday. If I start telling you that stuff now, what’s left?”
The 38-year-old attorney spent the past few weeks mulling over not just policy and proposals, but also more mundane but important matters such as how to balance his political post, his regular job and family life.
Check here next week for more on Foxx’s swearing-in and the new council. Below he offers a few more thoughts as he spends his last weekend as a council member before becoming mayor:
On his mayoral bid, which began last fall: “Honestly, it was a really, really long campaign season. There are federal races that don’t go as long as this one went. I’ve had to take some time to just decompress and to focus on the steps of getting the things done that I said I would get done. And I feel very comfortable that I’ve got a good idea of how that will happen. Of course, I’ve got to work with a new council.”
On speaking with seven-term Republican Mayor Pat McCrory, who did not seek re-election: “When you’ve done something for 14 years (as McCrory has as mayor), it makes stuff that’s perhaps challenging look easy. I have a high appreciation for how well he learned the job, how even simple things were managed very well, how ethical government was and how his leadership really has made a difference in the city. We talked a lot about the most effective ways to link up with other mayors across North Carolina to try to get things done. Time management and how to do some of the nuts and bolts of the job. He couldn’t have been more gracious with his time and his input. I’ve got him in my cell phone, so if I ever have a question ….
“The other thing that’s neat about Charlotte is we’ve got five former mayors (living). That’s an enormous resource. And I plan to use that resource at critical times, so I’ve got a good amount of perspective in those former mayors. I intend to use it because this is a challenging time. It’s a time we haven’t seen in this area in at least two generations.
“There’s a lot of anxiety out there. And I understand that. I’m a very resilient leader. In a time of great challenge and adversity, the most important thing to do is to keep our community’s focus on where we’re headed. If we stay focused on continuing to be a great community, a place where families and businesses want to (be), the right choices will get made. It’s when we vary from that, we get ourselves in trouble.”
On Democrats controlling council and mayor’s office: “I think my record speaks for itself in terms of how I’ve tried to manage issues. I make decisions that I think are good for our city. I don’t vote any more (as mayor). I can stop things from happening (with mayoral veto), but in our system, the council makes most of the decision. My purpose is to make sure those decisions are good. How do you do it? The first thing is you have to recognize there isn’t a monolithic majority on council. There’s a lot of diversity of perspective and viewpoint — that’s what democracy is all about. I don’t think that the numbers bear out the diversity that is on the council. The second is really encouraging the council to get fully engaged on issues. That means people in both parties playing an active role in the conversation. Not just throwing up their hands and saying, ‘I don’t control this.’ That’s not helpful, useful or what people elected us to do. The good thing about local government is there are lots of ways for people to express their opinions. In committees, through council discussion. People will find I’m going to be extremely respectful of the diversity on the council. The focus is on good ideas, not where they originate. (People aren’t) looking for antics, they’re looking for good leadership.”
On his desire to review the city’s bonus policy amid backlash stemming from county and city leaders being awarded bonuses during a time of job freezes and cuts: “I definitely understand how people feel, and that’s why my view is that the council ought to have some early discussion about how we’re going to treat that issue going forward. It’s always better for anyone in a work setting to know what’s likely going into the budget season. I’d rather have those conversations earlier with the three people we hire rather than later. I’d at least like them to have some awareness that there’s a possibility that there won’t be a bonus.”
Friday, December 4, 2009, 11:53am EST | Modified: Sunday, December 6, 2009, 2:39pm
Obama Focuses on Jobs, Infrastructure, Energy Rebates (Wall Street Journal)
Obama Focuses on Jobs, Infrastructure, Energy Rebates (Wall Street Journal)
‘Urgent Need’ to Boost Job Growth in Short-Term, President Says
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama proposed small business tax cuts, home retrofits and infrastructure investment as ways to accelerate job growth Tuesday, saying more programs are needed to boost the weak labor market and ensure the recovery takes hold for Main Street.
In a major speech at the Brookings Institution, Mr. Obama said he also wants to extend fiscal stimulus programs that would provide unemployment insurance for out-of-work Americans and help laid-off workers keep their health insurance.
Additionally, the White House wants to provide $250 payments to seniors and veterans and act on measures that could help local governments keep teachers and police officers employed.
To help pay for the measures in a time of soaring budget deficits, Mr. Obama highlighted the federal government’s $700 billion financial-rescue fund — an emergency bailout program he described as flawed but necessary. He said TARP has served its purpose and that it’s time to end the controversial program.
“With a fiscal crisis to match our economic crisis, we also must be prudent about how we fund” these job measures, he said. “So to help support these efforts, we’re going to wind down the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP — the fund created to stabilize the financial system so banks would lend again.”
The White House is considering using some TARP funds to pay for some of its job-creation ideas. At the same time, it says TARP losses are smaller than expected, which will also help pay down the deficit faster than the administration initially thought.
“These have been a tough two years. And there will no doubt be difficult months ahead,” said the president. “But the storms of the past are receding.”
Pointing to better-than-expected job market data last week, the president said the economy is on the right track. But more steps are needed to make sure that job growth matches up with economic growth, he said.
“Even though we have reduced the deluge of job losses to a relative trickle, we are not yet creating jobs at a pace to help all those families who have been swept up in the flood,” he said. “There are more than seven million fewer Americans with jobs today than when this recession began. And it speaks to an urgent need to accelerate job growth in the short term while laying a new foundation for lasting economic growth.”
The president’s speech comes just days after a jobs summit at the White House, where chief executives and nonprofit groups offered up solutions to the nation’s unemployment challenges.
Tax cuts are a key part of Mr. Obama’s plans, primarily those aimed at small business. The White House, for instance, announced plans to work with Congress to create a short-term tax incentive to encourage small-business hiring.
The president also proposed a one-year elimination of the tax on capital gains from new investments in small business stock. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 — the fiscal stimulus program Congress passed earlier this year — had allowed a 75% exclusion from capital gains taxes on small-business investments.
Other proposals include:
An extension through 2010 of stimulus provisions that allow small businesses to immediately expense up to $250,000 of qualified investment.
An extension of fiscal stimulus policies that accelerate the rate at which business can deduct the cost of capital expenditures. The White House says that provision will put more than $20 billion in the hands of businesses in 2010, while enabling the Treasury to recoup much of the funding as businesses regain their strength.
Eliminating fees and increasing guarantees for small businesses that borrow through Small Business Administration programs next year.
—Corey Boles contributed to this article.
Write to Maya Jackson Randall at [email protected]
DECEMBER 8, 2009, 1:21 P.M. ET
By MAYA JACKSON RANDALL