SJ Youth Works

Problem

Youth unemployment remains as high as 20% in some San Jose neighborhoods while a troublesome trend shows an increase in the number of younger youth (14 – 16 year old’s) committing burglaries and other crimes. The City’s gang- and crime-impacted neighborhoods fall short in opportunities for youth to be safe, engaged and productive over the summer months and gainful employment is a seemingly unreachable concept. A program that has long-targeted at-risk youth in these neighborhoods—The Mayor’s Gang Prevention Task Force—has long addressed the social, health and safety aspects confronted by at-risk youth and traditional youth employment programs have focused on the 18 and older group. An age-appropriate youth employment program for younger youth had not been attempted. 

Solution

This summer, Mayor Liccardo helped launch SJ Youth Works, a five-week summer youth employment program for younger, at-risk youth recruited through the public and nonprofit agencies already supporting them. SJ Youth Works improves on an already-existing youth employment program with the priority of addressing the reality faced by, and the needs of younger, at-risk youth. The methodology is one that coordinates with the support services already available through public and private continuum-of-care agencies like the County government’s social services programs and probation department or non-profits like TeenForce and Unity Care. By exposing younger youth to well-supported employment experiences that are supplemented with case management, life-skills and financial literacy training, SJ Youth Works is creating pathways for these youth to envision a career while making some money. Youth employment programs, even for younger at-risk youth, have been shown to decrease the likelihood that the youth will become an offender and decrease recidivism rates for those that have. 

Made in San Jose

Problem

Manufacturers consistently report a shortage of skilled workers as a key challenge to their operations in the U.S. As manufacturing today involves complex tools requiring technologically skilled operators, managers, and technicians, there is a strong need for increased access to the training and skills needed to fill these jobs and boost local economic activity. 

Solution

Mayor Sam Liccardo launched an initiative this summer to preserve and strengthen manufacturing activity in San Jose. By leveraging partnerships with industry leaders, energy providers, and educational institutions, he hopes to help San Jose boost its manufacturing base and provide a pathway to the middle class for residents in the wave of next-shoring taking place. These kinds of partnerships can provide students with a clear path to employment, and help boost flagging public college budgets. By focusing upon sites, space, and skills, this initiative will help revive dozens of underutilized warehouses and industrial sites and restore the wages and dignity of thousands of our unemployed neighbors. 

Citizen Data Scientist Challenge

Problem

Government departments collect information on their services but rarely have enough time to analyze their data to ask meaningful questions that could lead to delivering services more effectively.

Solution

Mayor Andy Berke has proposed the “Citizen Data Scientist Challenge,” as a way to provide departments with meaningful information on how to improve their services by crowdsourcing the analysis of their data from everyday citizens and students. The challenge will help increase trust in government, by providing an opportunity for citizens to engage directly with local government and propose their own solutions for how government can be made more effective.

Summer Jobs 253

Problem

In Tacoma, there are few options to help address the challenges of high youth unemployment, low on-time graduation rates, and poor financial literacy skills among students ages 14-18. With these obstacles, students do not have adequate access to the skills and experiences they need to graduate on time and succeed in the 21st century workforce. 

Solution

Marilyn Strickland has helped lead the development of Summer Jobs 253 (SJ253), a program that allows incoming high school juniors and seniors the opportunity to earn credit toward graduation while working as an intern for a local business. Students in the program work up to 96 hours for an employer as well as attending an additional 24 hours of classroom time to learn resume writing, interviewing, and financial literacy skills. The City coordinates the robust partnerships that make the program work because of growing support in the business community and amongst private and corporate donors. The Summer Jobs 253 program has helped connect high-risk students to the skills they need to graduate on time, enter the workforce prepared, and establish bank accounts to help save for their future.

Tax Abatement Accountability

Problem

It is often challenging for local government to balance the need to repurpose blighted or abandoned lots into taxable property, while ensuring an open and transparent process for their approval and scrutiny. 

Solution

Assemblymember Troy Singleton has advocated for a transparent process for tax abatements that ensures that those finite resources are used judiciously and in the best interests of taxpayers. Singleton proposed legislation requiring municipalities to file copies of tax abatement and exemption agreements with the county chief financial officer and county counsel within 30 days of execution. This will provide a heightened level of public scrutiny over the awarding of these financial incentives. Singleton also proposed legislation requiring municipalities to share certain payments received in lieu of taxes with counties and school districts; informing counties and school district of applications for tax exemptions.

PILOT Plan

Problem

Over the last two decades, Jersey City’s physical, cultural, and economic characteristics have changed significantly. Some neighborhoods have experienced a significant renaissance. Others still struggle to overcome issues that have plagued former industrial centers since the second half of the twentieth century. These issues are social, economic, and infrastructural, and all influence the availability of affordable and safe housing available to the city’s residents.

Solution

Mayor Steve Fulop has proposed a new plan to bring more affordable housing to Jersey City by using tiered tax incentives to drive development into areas where it is needed most. The updated PILOT plan aims to preserve community in these neighborhoods while also promoting development. The plan divides the city into four zones with their own set of tax incentives and affordability requirements in order to achieve a mix of market rate and affordable housing in each of them.

Taxpayer Advocate Program

Problem

Filing taxes can be a challenging, complicated process. It is even more frustrating for individuals, who, through no fault of their own, fall victim to administrative errors and delays from the tax collection agency. 

Solution

Senator Bob Hertzberg helped pass legislation this year to expand the taxpayer advocate program in California, helping provide financial relief to those who have been overcharged on their taxes because of administrative errors. Hertzberg’s plan will help restore trust in government by making sure that citizens are appropriately compensated if errors occur and by flagging occurrences of mistakes to help prevent them in the future.

Upward Mobility Act

Problem

During the past 60 years, California has moved from an agriculture and manufacturing-based economy to a services-based economy. As a result, state tax revenues have become less reliant on revenues derived from the Sales and Use Tax on goods and more reliant on revenues derived from the Personal Income Tax. As personal incomes tumbled during the Great Recession, state revenues plummeted disproportionately, causing states to cut many essential services such as health care and child care for low-income families when they were needed most. Relying on the wealthiest taxpayers to support California’s needs is an outdated practice and dangerous during hard economic times. 

Solution

Senator Bob Hertzberg proposed his “Upward Mobility Act” this year to help reform the current tax structure in order to make stronger, long-term investments in education, skills training, and infrastructure needs that will help ensure that California’s residents and businesses can thrive in the 21st century global economy. The initial goal of the upward mobility act is to explore problems with the current tax structure and discuss reform alternatives, such as expanding the application of Sales and Use Tax law by imposing a tax on specified services, incentivizing entrepreneurship and business creation by evaluating potential changes to the corporate tax law, and examining the impacts of a simpler Personal Income Tax Law. By reviewing the current tax structure and adapting it to meet the future needs of the changing economy, Senator Hertzberg’s plan will help revitalize education funding, jumpstart job creation, and foster improved state finances and business climate, helping expand opportunity for more California residents for many years to come.

Money on the Sidelines

Problem

Each year the New Mexico State Legislature appropriates hundreds of millions of dollars in funds to the Executive Branch for various projects across the state. Yet many times these projects will go years without being completed, if ever.

Solution

As State Auditor, Tim Keller implemented “Money on the Sidelines”, an analytical report that explored how much public money sits unspent in over 700 different accounts held by hundreds of state agencies. In total, the report uncovered $4.2 billion dollars in unspent funds. With this information readily accessible, policy changes are already in the works regarding ways to cut red tape, fully fund projects, and for re-appropriation or reversion of unspent and unusable funds.

Working Families Opportunity Act

 

Problem

The Arkansas tax system places a far greater burden on low- and middle-income Arkansans than the top 20 percent of earners in the state. High-income Arkansans pay about six percent of their total income in state and local taxes while households at the state average and below pay nearly twice that amount.

Solution

Representative Warwick Sabin sponsored “The Working Families Opportunity Act,” a state version of the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, which is the nation’s most effective tool for reducing poverty among working families and children. The WFOA provides a break to working Arkansans who currently shoulder a disproportionately high tax burden. WFOA credits help people make ends meet while working at low wages so that they can stay employed and take advantage of opportunities to make a better life for themselves and their families.

How to steal this idea:

Read about Representative Sabin’s efforts on the Working Families Opportunity Act in this op-ed he wrote: Rep. Warwick Sabin: In Support Of The Working Families Opportunities Act

See the legislation he sponsored in Arkansas here.

Learn about how other states are adopting and adapting the federal Earned Income Tax Credit at https://www.brookings.edu/blogs/the-avenue/posts/2015/07/29-states-eitc-local-need-holmes-berube

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