Oakland80 – Oakland County’s Education Attainment Goal

Problem

In 2018, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced the State’s 60 by 30 initiative – a robust goal to ensure 60% of working-age Michiganders have a professional certificate or college degree by 2030. Currently, Michigan ranks 37th nationally for education attainment with significant gaps by race, ethnicity and income. Oakland County, an economic driver for the state, boasts a 61% education attainment rate. However, significant barriers and inequities remain for residents across key communities, limiting access to post-secondary education. Personal barriers, including childcare, transportation, student debt, and a lack of career awareness, result in challenges to accessing and completing post-secondary education. Enrollment, completion, credentials/certified earned, and high school graduation rates must increase to achieve Michigan’s 60 by 30 goal and Oakland County’s local goal of 80% attainment by 2030. Increased educational attainment will lead to economic self-sufficiency, income equality and economic growth for Oakland County’s 1.3 million residents and 40,000 businesses.

 

Solution

Oakland County is the first county to set a local post-secondary education attainment goal in the state. Oakland80 is focused on creating solutions under six key pillars:

  1. K-12 Graduation Rates
  2. Net Migration
  3. Post-Secondary Enrollment
  4. Post-Secondary Completion
  5. Adults with Some College, No Degree
  6. Industry Recognized Credentials/Certificates

For each of these pillars, Oakland80 focuses on customized and personal barrier removal, accessible career and education navigation, and financial support to accessing education. Oakland80 is utilizing data to understand target populations, key communities of focus, and identifying gaps in the access to post-secondary education. Our team has a personal commitment to “meet people where they are” through the deployment of Oakland80 Career Navigators across the County, equipped with financial resources and partnerships to help individuals overcome any barriers interfering with their ability to enroll and complete post-secondary education.

CommUNITY Response Teams

Problem

Chester County experienced immeasurable loss during the pandemic, including more than 800 lives and hundreds of businesses. In order to get back to where we were, and ideally have a better economy than we had previously, we need to include all corners of our community to develop long-term, forward thinking solutions that will establish our County as a driver of economic growth during the next 10 years.

 

Solution

Chester County has embarked on a mission to use the American Rescue Plan Act funds to rebuild our community.  A critical part of the process is to include members of the public as part of the evaluation teams that will prioritize and review proposals that would most effectively spend-down the funding.  Seven evaluation teams will be established by Chester County to address each priority area for ARPA funding.  Each team will include representatives from Chester County Government’s finance department, solicitor’s office and strategic planning team, who will facilitate the priority groups. Three county employee volunteers and four volunteers from the community will complete each team.  Members that will help direct the ARPA funds represent a cross section of people covering all ages, genders, socio-economic and geographical areas of the county. This approach helps ensure the difficult questions are asked of proposals, leading to increased results and outcomes.

Maryland Access to Capital Program

Problem

 Lending to small businesses has decreased in recent years. Part of the problem is that small businesses without substantial/ solid credit have few options for loans. The same goes for those without adequate collateral or a relationship with a bank. This disproportionately disadvantages low-income residents, immigrants, business owners of color, residents in reentry, etc. Financial exclusion of resource-restricted populations in Marylander is a problem.

Another part of the problem is that non-traditional financial institutions in the business of making loans to these populations face high borrowing costs themselves, minimal incentives to make these loans, and little to no coverage on loan defaults.

Small businesses have been hit extremely hard by the pandemic as they have worked to adapt to a remote environment, comply with pandemic-related requirements, etc. Absent access to credit, small businesses cannot succeed and scale. Job growth and wealth creation are stifled, especially in historically disinvested neighborhoods.

 

Solution

The Maryland Capital Access Program (MDCAP) encourages banks and other financial institutions to make loans to small businesses – especially those that have been unable to or have had difficulty obtaining loans in the past. MDCAP creates a loan loss reserve program, managed by the Department of Commerce, for financial institutions making qualified loans. Each time a qualifying loan is made to a small business, a percentage of the loan amount is deposited into the loan loss reserve account by the lender, the borrower, AND the State.

The loan loss reserve account mitigates risk loss to a qualifying lender and gives lenders the confidence to be more flexible on collateral and credit requirements. Further, particularly for CDFIs, the loan loss reserve account can decrease the cost of borrowing money. The program motivates lenders to bank a wider band of businesses with the assurance that losses can be recovered from the loan loss reserve account.

This program was the result of legislation sponsored by Maryland Delegate Brooke Lierman and co-filed by Maryland Senator Katie Fry Hester.

Jump-starting Rural Businesses and Economies

Problem

 Economic recovery and prosperity in Colorado is too often concentrated in the metro areas of the state. In Colorado, the pandemic hit rural Colorado particularly hard and for many rural communities, the economic recovery has been much slower than the recovery in other parts of the state. As we build back from this pandemic, we need to invest in programs that will ensure all parts of our state, particularly our many rural communities, have the tools they need to attract new businesses, create good-paying jobs, and diversify their economy. Building back better needs to mean better for all parts of our state, not just the big cities and suburbs. This is not a problem confined solely to Colorado as most states also have a division between the more metro areas and the rural parts of their state. 

 

Solution

States should invest in the Rural Jump-Start Small Businesses Tax Credit and Incentive Program.

The Rural Jump-Start Program helps economically distressed communities attract new businesses and jobs. Counties, municipalities, and higher education institutions work together to apply for this program.

When a community is a designated rural jump-start zone, new businesses can receive incentive payments and tax relief including credits, exemptions, and refunds from:
state income tax, state sales and use tax, county and municipal personal property taxes.

Employees of new businesses receive a grant for starting a new business and a tax credit for 100% of state income taxes on their wages for work in the rural jump-start zone.

Establishing a Public Bank in the City of Philadelphia

Problem

As we work to rebound from the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are also seeing with fresh eyes some of the longstanding inequities and disparities exacerbated by this global public health crisis. Equitable economic opportunities and access to capital for many small businesses, particularly minority- and women-owned businesses, are issues that spun out of decades of redlining and systemic racism. Black and Brown neighborhoods in Philadelphia, the poorest of the 10 largest U.S. cities, continue to see increasing levels of poverty and homelessness as a result of lack of equal access to job and entrepreneurial opportunities. Currently, despite Philadelphia having a population that is 43% African American, only 6% of the businesses with employees in the city are Black-owned.

Solution

Creating a municipally owned bank in the City of Philadelphia would enhance the ability of many small businesses and entrepreneurs of color, as well as other grassroots and community organizations to obtain access to capital, establish a lending history, and gain a foothold in generating long-term wealth when existing lenders might otherwise deem them “hard to lend to” or “credit unworthy”.

Community Care Sites

Problem

 Wyoming is more than just rural – it is a frontier state that lacks the larger scale infrastructure common in other states. Wyoming lacks a coordinated statewide healthcare system. There is no statewide university system. Opportunities can be scarce for advancement, and women in particular face many barriers to self-sufficiency. Women face hurdles to entering and remaining in the workforce and communities struggle to offer enough child care to meet the demands. When child care is available, affordability is a challenge. Communities are not only isolated but also dispersed, making available infrastructure largely inaccessible. Compound this with a high gender wage gap, workforce recruitment challenges, and a volatile economy subjected to the boom-bust cycles of the energy industry. 

 

Solution

Co-locating child care facilities with community college and agriculture extension offices in communities around Wyoming to create a network of Community Care Sites. This will support affordable child care for parents – especially women – who wish to return to school or work.  This will support the growth of an early education workforce to ensure quality and sustainability as students in early education programs can work at the child care facilities. It will attract businesses to the state, helping to diversify Wyoming’s economy, and it will support economic growth as women are able to return to the workforce. Co-locating the facilities also helps expand the idea of institutions of learning as centers for community growth and assists with the often-prohibitive infrastructure costs of building or renovating a site into a code compliant child care facility. It can facilitate easy access to high speed internet for individuals and families that still need those final miles of broadband. It is an opportunity to complete the education circle.   

Revolving Loan Fund for Communities Threatened by Climate-Fueled Disasters

Problem

 As global temperatures rise, so do sea levels, which threaten to erode cliffs and flood homes along California’s coast. Local governments are facing very difficult political decisions.  They are looking for ways to address this crisis, balancing very limited budgets and few good options with the needs of residents.

Solution

Senate Bill 83 establishes a revolving fund within the State Coastal Conservancy to provide state-backed low-interest mortgages to local governments, who would use the money to buy properties at risk of sea-level rise in the next one or two decades. While allowing the owner to sell while a property still has value, the local entity can then rent out the property, repay the loan, and potentially earn additional revenue. Once the property is at risk of flooding from the rising sea, the property can be demolished.

 

Protecting Our Natural Resources through Agricultural and Environmental Alliances

Problem

Our world is experiencing the effects of climate change in a way that threatens every corner of the planet, from rising sea levels, drought, and heat to catastrophic weather events. Most farmers recognize and understand the value of our natural resources and have used the best technology available and affordable at the time; yet, many outdated practices resulted in over-fertilization and runoff into our water bodies, timber reduction without repopulation, and animal farming practices that produce waste and byproducts.  At the same time, we are experiencing loss of farm and timberland due to the continued expansion of urban and coastal development and natural disasters. A farmer once shared that “the last crop a farmer ever plants is housed.”

 

Solution

Our legislation seeks to bring environmentalists and agricultural producers together to quantify the ways that farmers and large landholders contribute to long-term sustainability and resiliency goals. State agencies and universities will determine a value for services such as water recharge, stormwater filtration, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, and air quality.  Putting a value on the BENEFITS of these “services” will encourage and incentivize best practices and modern farming techniques that are integral to the protection of critical natural resources.

Michigan Green Government Fund and Standards Act

Problem

 As Michigan faces the ever-expanding consequences of global climate change, I believe that our government should be modeling good behavior for ourselves similar to that which we’re asking our constituents to do. Michigan’s Department of Technology, Management & Budget manages 6.7 million square feet of facility space via 568 leases and moves 25 million pieces of mail each year. While Michigan does have state guidelines on increasing energy efficiency in state buildings and laws do require that energy efficiency is taken into account, there are neither design mandates to do so in the name of decreasing the state government’s carbon footprint nor are there explicit funds with which to ensure that new green building projects and renovations or EV fleet purchases are properly funded. Government has to model behavior that we expect of our constituents to show that we live the values we’re asking people to follow.

 

Solution

The Michigan Green Government Fund and Standards Act is a two-part solution, combining a revolving fund with building and purchasing standards for state government agencies. By partnering explicit green building design standards for new state constructions, renovations, and EV fleet purchases with a self-sustaining funding vehicle, we hope to show the government as both a good financial steward and as proactive in reducing Michigan’s carbon footprint. The revolving fund — using initial seed funding — would fund new constructions, improvements, renovations, or EV fleet expansions, and would receive funds equivalent to the calculated savings of each finished project compared to a non-green alternative. This calculus would be supported by mandatory data collection under the initial design requirements under the act — for example, a new building built with these design standards would be required to have systems to track energy usage, so energy savings can be calculated and savings deposited.

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Project Taillight: Keeping Columbus Safe One Vehicle at a Time

Problem

 Too often, low-income individuals don’t have the disposable cash to have their vehicle’s safety lights repaired when headlights, taillights, license plate lights, or brake lights are broken or burned out. The result is unsafe vehicles on the road and opportunities for folks to be pulled over and ticketed for safety violations. Those tickets cost money (on top of repair costs) and could result in unpaid fines leading to suspended licenses or worse. In the City of Columbus, we have seen a disproportionate number of vehicle safety violations issued to residents in our most economically challenged neighborhoods and wanted to take a proactive approach to address the issue.

 

Solution

Offer free vehicle safety light repairs to low-income households. Through Project Taillight, individuals living in households with annual income less than 200% of the federal poverty line and needing safety light repairs can contact the City Attorney’s Office to schedule repair appointments with Columbus State Community College’s Automotive Technology Program. Project Taillight participants receive free light repairs, vehicle safety checks, and fluid top-offs (oil, coolant, etc.).  We tested the model with 79 people and had overwhelming responses from participants, residents, and community leaders– all recognizing how a small setback, like an unpaid ticket, could upend families struggling to make ends meet and that a small investment in parts and labor could help overcome this challenge. We piloted the program through our local community college and plan to expand/scale the service through commercial auto repair shops and have an agreement from local law enforcement to give Project Taillight information to drivers in lieu of citations.

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