Archive for the ‘Job Quality Standards’ Category

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Opening Week Problems for New York Yankees Go Beyond Blowin’ in the Wind

April 24, 2009

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There’s more going on in The Bronx at the new Yankee Stadium opening week than just the now infamous wind tunnel that’s left fans aghast. Here’s a run down of news that’s probably kept the team’s public relations staff team very busy:

 

            The City’s Economic Development Corporation released job figures for the stadium but they raised more questions than answers. For example, how many Bronx residents were hired? What are the wages and benefits? As expected, most of the new non-construction jobs are seasonal so what is the economic impact of those short-term jobs in contrast to the billion dollar subsidy price tag?

             Assembly Members Richard Brodsky and James Brennan asked the New York State Supreme Court to have the Yankees comply with a subpoena as part of the Assembly’s investigation into the $1.3 billion the team received from the New York City Industrial Development agency in tax-free financing the new stadium. It seems the subpoena is having an effect as the Yankees might have to turn over documents.

             South Bronx residents and advocates joined clamoring Yankee fans on opening day to demand officials move more quickly to replace the over 22 acres of parkland where the new stadium now sits.

             New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. released another audit showing the Yankees owe the city $68,000 in rent. Not paying the rent is a disturbing trend for the Yankees as previous audits by Thompson show they have underestimated the rent by about $3 million since 2002.

             And finally, the already dubious economic multiplier effect of the new stadium is in serious doubt since the priciest seats are empty.  What are the restaurants, parking garages and concession stands in the stadium to do without rich fans?

Posted in Job Quality Standards, Jobs, New York, Property Taxes, Stadiums, Yankee Stadium | 1 Comment »

Money for Nothing

February 24, 2009

Money for NothingThe West Virginia Center on Budget & Policy has just released a new report examining how state agencies can improve their bang for the buck on job-creation investments. The report, entitled “Money for Nothing: Do Business Subsides Create Jobs or Leave Workers in Dire Straits?,” focuses on the three of the most common subsidies with job-creation requirements: the Economic Opportunity Tax Credit, the Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit, and the West Virginia Economic Development Authority’s (WVEDA) low-interest direct loans.

Despite spending millions of dollars annually to encourage private businesses to create good-paying jobs, the report concludes West Virginia is getting little in return. The authors recommend better public disclosure on the details of each program, timely and company-specific information on the number and quality of jobs created, clear consequences for non-compliant subsidy recipients, and an annual unified development budget to keep state agencies better informed.

Posted in Clawbacks, Disclosure, Job Quality Standards, Tax Expenditure Budgets | Leave a Comment »

CBA Moves Forward in Pittsburgh

October 1, 2008

Pittsburgh has joined the list of cities with community benefits agreements. The plan is moving forward after the Pittsburgh City Council gave its blessing to the agreement, which was signed by several public entities as well as community groups and a private company. The One Hill CBA Coalition negotiated the deal with the owners of Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team, as well as the City of Pittsburgh, AlleghenyCounty and the county Sports and Exhibition Authority. The $750 million project includes a new arena for the Penguins and redevelopment of the arena where the team currently plays.

The One Hill CBA Coalition was formed in April 2007 when city and county officially agreed to subsidize a new arena for the team in the city’s Hill District. The Coalition consists of 97 community groups, church groups, small businesses and historic preservation groups. Carl Redwood, Jr., Chairman of the Coalition, told me he wanted to make sure the development was beneficial to Hill residents: “We needed to determine our community’s future and development projects that fit into our plan.”

Pittsburgh UNITED, a chapter of the Partnership for Working Families, played a crucial role in the coalition’s success by mobilizing allies from around the city. For instance, the group organized a bus tour for progressive allies and for members of the media to show them areas of the Hill that would benefit from a CBA. Ultimately, the media started talking about the importance of family-sustaining jobs, community involvement and giving workers freedom to organize.

Local elected officials and the owners of the Penguins were originally resistant to the idea of a signed CBA. After months of public actions and press coverage, the Penguins and the elected officials had no choice but to bargain with One Hill. Subsequently, the final negotiations involved community leaders, County Executive Dan Oronato, Mayor Luke Ravenstahl and Penguins President David Morehouse.

The CBA will involve the people who live in the Hill District in numerous ways and help to rebuild their infrastructure and economy. First, the Penguins and the city’s Urban Redevelopment Authority will each provide $1 million for a locally-owned full-service grocery store in the district. Additionally, residents will have access to a local employment center that gives district residents access to jobs created at the new arena and the redevelopment project that will pay $12 to $30 an hour. The CBA also calls for the creation of the master planning committee which sets forth development guidelines. Along with the construction of a community center for youth, families and seniors, the Hill District will also see the creation of a Neighborhood Partnership Program centered on social services for the neighborhood.

While the CBA is seen as a victory, Redwood admits that there are some people in the community who feel the agreement did not go far enough given the $290 million subsidy. Redwood emphasized the need to continue community involvement: “To have a victory like this is important but we need to build upon it.”

Posted in Community Benefits Agreements, Job Quality Standards, Jobs, Stadiums, Subsidies | Leave a Comment »

A Boost for Prevailing Wages in Ohio

August 29, 2008

Strong, healthy communities are built by workers who are paid fair wages for their labor. In Ohio, the administration of Governor Strickland will see to it that this occurs on more projects in which public money is involved.

Strickland reportedly will soon mandate wider application of the state’s prevailing wage rule. A recently circulated Department of Commerce memo indicates that the state will require prevailing wages on privately funded projects that also involve partial public funding. This interpretation of the Ohio’s Little Davis-Bacon Act could indicate big changes for wage treatment of almost all subsidized development in the state. According to a spokesperson for the governor, the directive, originally slated for a Labor Day announcement, will be released soon thereafter.

In addition to the Davis-Bacon Act, which applies prevailing wage to all federal development and subsidized construction in the District of Columbia, 34 states have their own Little Davis-Bacon Acts. However, only a handful of states apply prevailing wage rules to projects involving economic development subsidies. Expansion of the laws to economic development financing tools tends to be politically divisive.

For an issue so mired in political partisanship, this is a bold move by Governor Strickland. Prevailing wage laws have been relentlessly attacked by their opponents since the passage of the Davis-Bacon Act in 1931. (Interestingly, Senator Davis and Representative Bacon were both Republicans and passed the Act through a Republican controlled Congress and Republican President Herbert Hoover.) Attacks on prevailing wage take many different forms, including attempts to directly repeal the laws, legislative proposals prohibiting prevailing wage on specific categories of construction projects, and non-enforcement of existing laws by adversarial administrations.

Ohio’s prevailing wage rule has weathered each of these attacks, but the Strickland Administration’s move could bring new controversy to the issue. An Ohio Department of Commerce memo obtained by Good Jobs First lays out a series of guidelines intended to clarify the application of prevailing wage rules. Common scenarios that will subject entire projects to prevailing wage include:

• publicly financed machinery or equipment in a newly constructed or remodeled private structure;
• infrastructure improvements on private land;
• remediation of environmental hazards for an identified end-user; and
• construction of multiple building projects in which only one building is subsidized.

The memo states that prevailing wage would be triggered when the funding comes in the form of bonds, grants, and loans but not by tax abatements, tax credits, or job training grants.

Happy Labor Day, Ohio!

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Posted in Job Quality Standards, Subsidies, Unions | 2 Comments »

Accountable Development Victory in New Jersey: Major Project to Include Housing and Job Quality Standards

August 5, 2008

The redevelopment of the Military Ocean Terminal in Bayonne will now promote good jobs and affordable housing in northern New Jersey. Much of the credit for this goes to the Garden State Alliance for a New Economy (GANE), which persuaded local officials to include job quality and housing affordability language in a Request for Proposals (RFP)to redevelop the decommissioned army facility.

The $10 billion 16 million-square-foot mixed-use redevelopment project—which is expected to create some 3,000 waterfront residential units, up to 1,000 hotel rooms and commercial and light industrial space—is eagerly anticipated in the community. Kate Atkins, executive director of GANE—a recently formed affiliate of the Partnership for Working Families —said involvement in the project was too important to pass up: “It will have a major impact on the region’s economy for many years to come.”

Representing a coalition of five unions and four community groups, GANE testified at local redevelopment authority meetings and held meetings with Mayor Terrence Malloy and other local officials. According to Atkins, “The coalition has been united on making sure that throughout the project the larger public benefit is really kept in mind–for example, making sure that construction jobs are good union jobs, and the permanent jobs are also high quality jobs.”

GANE’s goals are not only to educate public officials about their capacity to set high standards for developers, but also to send the message that it is possible to promote economic development that is financially beneficial to the community both in the short-term and in the long-term.

While GANE is pleased with its impact on the RFP, its job is not done. The group will monitor the process of selecting the developer to make sure that the project continues to promote equitable economic development.

Posted in Community Benefits Agreements, Job Quality Standards, Jobs, Unions | Leave a Comment »

Denver Adopts Job Quality Standards for TIF!

July 31, 2008
Members of the Prevailing Wage Committee

Members of the Prevailing Wage Committee

The Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA) took a big step forward this month in helping to ensure that TIF-funded projects are built by construction workers employed in high quality jobs. The adoption of two policies linking job quality standards to subsidized development projects represents a key economic development reform for Denver. The credit for this shift goes to the Prevailing Wage Committee, a grassroots organization composed of representatives of the building trades, and FRESC (formerly known as the Front Range Economic Strategy Center) who have been working toward this achievement for more than a year.

For over 50 years, Denver has had a law requiring the payment of prevailing wages for construction and other site maintenance work performed by private contractors and subcontractors on projects that are publicly owned or “financed in whole or part” by the city. This law wasn’t applied consistently, however, and the city spent nearly a half of a billion dollars on TIF projects over the last decade, many of which didn’t require the payment of family-supporting wages.

DURA’s new rule applies Denver’s Prevailing Wage Policy to trunk infrastructure construction on TIF-funded development. Trunk infrastructure includes any work done on roads, public utilities, parks, police stations, libraries and more. The policy includes provisions for regular and overtime pay, fringe benefits and timely payment of employees. DURA further adopted the Enhanced Training Opportunity Policy, which requires all projects to dedicate one percent of their TIF allocation towards workforce training of existing and potential workers as well as small or disadvantaged construction business owners.

Though there are numerous types of development subsidies to which reforms such as job quality standards may be attached, there are not many specific to TIF projects. Denver joins Maine; West Virginia; Davenport and Des Moines, Iowa; Hartford, Connecticut; Missoula, Montana; and Los Angeles as jurisdictions that mandate such standards.

As one of the largest purchasers of construction services, government has significant power to bolster wages in the industry. The move by DURA toward guaranteeing good jobs in TIF projects represents a solid investment in stronger communities and more accountable development.

Posted in Community Benefits Agreements, Job Quality Standards, Jobs, Subsidies, Tax Increment Financing, Unions | 1 Comment »

Big Victories for Partnership for Working Families and Affiliates

June 19, 2008

Our friends at the Partnership for Working Families (PWF) and its affiliate organizations do amazing work. So it’s not surprising they are winning big victories – most recently in Pittsburgh and San Francisco, and hopefully another in San Jose this fall.

PWF affiliates work to ensure that low and middle income workers and communities share in the benefit of economic growth and development. Often, they campaign for community benefits agreements (CBAs) – legally binding contracts signed by developers and community coalitions that spell out a set of community benefits that the developer must provide as part of a development project.

In Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh United’s One Hill CBA Coalition, is close to winning the city’s first-ever community benefits agreement for the new Penguins hockey arena and 28 acres of surrounding land. The agreement, which has been tentatively approved by the Penguins, would require that all new jobs in the development pay living wages and provide health benefits. Neighborhood residents would be interviewed first for the new jobs. Also, the arena would have to prepare a LEED Certification Plan (the gold standard for green building).

In San Francisco: The San Francisco Labor Council, ACORN, and the San Francisco Organizing Project have entered into a CBA with housing developer Lennar for a massive redevelopment in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood. Lennar has agreed to ensure that 32 percent of the housing units are affordable, provide neighborhood residents with $27 million in housing assistance and $8.5 million in job training services, require local hiring for project construction, and ensure labor peace in the project’s key industries. In exchange for these concessions, the organizations were strong advocates in support of the project on two city ballot initiatives – helping the initiatives pass on June 3rd. Now Lennar has a green light for the city’s largest redevelopment project since the 1906 earthquake.

In San Jose: Working Partnerships USA is organizing community, faith and labor leaders to support living wages for workers at the Mineta San Jose International Airport. In a recent report, Worker Partnerships found that over half of the surveyed airport employees weren’t trained in critical emergency procedures, such as facility evacuation. Paying a living wage would reduce turnover at the airport, increase the amount of long-term, skilled workers on site and consequently improve airport safety. Airport workers and community advocates spoke in support of a measure to require living wages for airport workers before the San Jose City Council’s Transportation and Environment Committee on June 2nd. Worker Partnerships is hopes to win an airport living wage ordinance this fall.

Posted in Job Quality Standards, Stadiums | Leave a Comment »

The Man Without a Plan, Uncle Sam

May 22, 2008

The man without a plan? That would be Uncle Sam!

 

It has been 20 years since cities started adopting clawbacks, often in the wake of plant closings, and they are everywhere today.

 

It has been 14 years since the living wage movement took off and today Job Quality Standards are found in most states’ development code and many cities’ and counties= contracts.

 

It has been 13 years since Minnesota enacted what was then a terrific disclosure law and half the states now disclose to varying degrees.

 

It has been 10 years since the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy won its first Community Benefits Agreements, that model has spread across the nation.

 

We are way past any dogma that these reforms are going to somehow “poison the business climate.”

 

Yet look at the pathetic state of the federal government=s main economic development agencies and programs:

HUD is in shambles, not just because of Secretary Jackson’s departure under an ethics cloud, but because its funding has been repeatedly cut and its staff demoralized so that it has grown irrelevant on the big issues of the day.

 

Did HUD avert the subprime scandal? Is HUD weatherizing millions of homes to curb global warming and help people deal with soaring energy prices?

 

Community Development Block Grants C HUD’s biggest urban aid program C lack basic safeguards, and they don’t require Community Benefits.

 

It is because of cutbacks in programs like Block Grants that city officials claim they must mortgage our future C that they must create TIF districts that impoverish our tax base and our schools for 15, 23, even 35 years.

 

The Department of Labor’s Workforce Investment Act also spreads money everywhere, but it lacks a firm Job Quality Standards requirement (although some local WIBs have attached them).

 

The same structural accountability problems exist with major Department of Commerce programs.

 

And as one newspaper exposé revealed, even the Agriculture Department spends billions for economic development, much of it fueling sprawl or favoring big businesses over small ones or subsidizing projects in wealthy areas that don=t need help.

 

There is one tiny office of the Environmental Protection Agency doing some terrific work on smart growth, but it is just one tiny office.

 

It is a big issue that Uncle Sam Has No Plan. According to estimates made in the mid-1990s, the federal government spends two and a half times more on “corporate welfare” than do all 50 states combined — about $125 billion per year C versus $50 billion for all the states.

 

As in the states, most of those federal dollars are uncollected taxes: tax credits, tax exemptions, bonus depreciation, and so forth. But we still don’t have specific details about who got what.

In my next blog: how Uncle Sam’s incomplete disclosure systems reveals only the tip of the iceberg.

 

 

 

 

Posted in Clawbacks, Climate Issues, Community Benefits Agreements, Disclosure, Federal Job Subsidies, Job Quality Standards, Smart Growth, Subsidies | Leave a Comment »

Spring fever in the Big Apple

April 24, 2008

I wasn’t just hallucinating in the noonday sun; there was love in the air today.  At a rally on the steps of City Hall stood Bronx residents, elected officials, retail clerks’ and janitors’ union members and plenty of building trades hardhats in support of a Community Benefits Agreement to redevelop the massive, 575,000-square foot Kingsbridge Armory. The landmark facility built in 1917 is slated to be a shopping center with long needed amenities like recreation facilities and entertainment venues.

In New York City, it’s rare to see such a mix of groups back a development project. The political and real estate forces here have perfected a divide and conquer technique that excludes long-time residents and some labor unions from any meaningful input on proposed projects. Indeed, they are cursed as trolls of development.

Not this time.  Members of the Kingsbridge Armory Redevelopment Alliance (KARA), a project of the Northwest Bronx Community & Clergy Coalition, have spent years educating the community about the development process and the potential of a redeveloped Armory. They won a seat at the city’s decision making table – not an easy feat in this town – to ensure the voices of the mostly low- and moderate-income residents were heard from the get go.

This week the city announced a developer had been chosen, with a nod to community involvement for helping with a smooth selection process. Now the hard work begins to ensure that the retail jobs are good jobs – and that badly needed schools are also built in the neighborhood.

Over the years there have been several plans for the Armory that housed tanks, has a huge drill floor and an 800-seat auditorium. Now, thanks to the persistence and inclusiveness of NWBCCC, a good plan is moving forward.

Considering the dismal display of so-called “community benefits agreements” cut privately in The Bronx the past couple of years, those of us working for accountable development in New York are in a spring swoon for the Armory deal.

Come check it out, members of KARA will show off their organizing prowess at GJF conference next month: www.goodjobsfirst.org/conference

 

Posted in Job Quality Standards, New York, Subsidies, Unions | Leave a Comment »

Chicago Nixes Second Wal-Mart: The End of Its Urban Strategy?

March 25, 2008

Apparently to preserve Mayor Richard Daley’s détente with organized labor, Chicago government has nixed a renewed effort by Wal-Mart to build a new Supercenter in the predominantly African-American Chatham neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side.

In vetoing the bid, Chicago’s planning commissioner–who must approve stores bigger than 100,000 square feet– cited the 2004 promise by the original lead developer that Wal-Mart would no longer be part of the Chatham Market retail development, which is located at a former industrial site in a Tax Increment Finance (TIF) district. Since the company has been effectively shut out of Los Angeles, Boston, and New York City, Chicago has been described as “ground zero” in Wal-Mart’s strategy for moving into untapped urban markets.

In 2004, the company’s effort to put a store in Chicago’s impoverished West Side provoked a bitter battle in Chicago City Council. Unions and community organizations including ACORN mounted a citywide effort to block the notoriously anti-union, low-wage company from operating in the city. Wal-Mart succeeded only after Mayor Daley wielded his first-ever veto against a union-backed bill that would have required “big box” stores like Wal-Mart to pay a “retail living wage” or provide compensating benefits. However, Wal-Mart’s success in getting a West Side location was not duplicated in its simultaneous bid for a South Side store in the Chatham development. Support for the proposed Wal-Mart from the Chatham neighborhood’s local alderman could not overcome organized community opposition.

In order to win zoning changes needed for the larger Chatham project, and a reported $33 million in TIF funds for environmental clean-up, Monroe Investment Partners LLC told city government Wal-Mart would no longer be part of the Southside development. But when Archon Group, a unit of investment bank Goldman Sachs, became lead developer for the Chatham site, it renewed the bid to include a Wal-Mart store.

Backers of the proposed Southside Wal-Mart claim the store would provide new grocery options for a depressed area, although there are already a Food 4 Less and Jewel-Osco located nearby. Other residents in the South Side and elsewhere in Chicago cite Wal-Mart’s anti-labor stance and conservative politics as a reason to continue to keep it out. Having spent at least $2.5 million in the aldermanic elections that followed the Mayor’s veto, Chicago unions have threatened to reintroduce the retail living wage measure if a second Wal-Mart is approved.

The experience of the existing West Side store is decidedly mixed. The store’s sales last fall were reportedly “good, not great.” Independent businesspeople near the West Side store have mixed feelings about Wal-Mart’s Jobs and Opportunity Zone Program, with some worried about being run out of business while others are happy to have a big player’s presence in an economically depressed area. At the moment, the West Side store looks like it may remain Wal-Mart’s only Chicago experiment.

Posted in Big Box Retail, Illinois, Job Quality Standards, Subsidies, Tax Increment Financing, Unions | Leave a Comment »

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