Legislatively Speaking
By Senator, Lena C. Taylor
Lena C. Taylor
Have you ever noticed that Republicans talk a lot about jobs, but they don’t do much to back it up?
Moreover, you hardly ever hear them talk about trying to grow wages. When he was first elected, Governor Scott Walker led us to believe job creation was his number one priority.
He even pledged to create 250,000 jobs in his first term.
To make his promise come true, he trashed the Department of Commerce and created the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and placed himself at the head of their Board of Directors.
However, the jobs never came. In fact, under Walker’s watch, WEDC has been the subject of great criticism, including mismanagement and poor performance.
In 2011, WEDC approved a goal of creating 50,000 new jobs per year.
Yet, according to WEDC’s own numbers, they can only account for creating 5,840 jobs in 2012 and 2013.
It was just that kind of poor performance that led Republicans to fire Governor Walker from the WEDC board last week. I am tired of listening to politicians talk about how important our economy is and praising Milwaukee’s role in leading that economy. Yet, when push comes to shove, what do they have to show for their lip service?
Wisconsin’s unemployment rate is currently at 4.8 percent according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Meanwhile, Milwaukee County’s unemployment rate sits at 6.5 percent, while the City of Milwaukee’s rate is even higher at 7.4 percent.
What’s worse is that about half of the city’s African-American men between ages 25-54 are unemployed according to a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article.
While we need jobs, we also need good paying family supporting jobs that will lift our people out of poverty.
There are cutting-edge industries in the areas of urban agriculture, information technology, urban forestry and water conservation that we must further explore.
Republicans talk a good game on job creation, yet their trickle-down economics never seem to trickle down to the people who actually need the income.
Take for example former US President Ronald Reagan’s statement that, “I believe the best social program is a job.”
Isn’t President Reagan missing “well-paying?”
And even when we do have family-supporting income jobs, Republicans seem intent on attacking those wages.
First they went after public workers, then they busted private sector employee unions and now the latest out of the State Capitol this week is that Republicans have their sights set on attacking prevailing wage laws. Enacted in the 1930s, prevailing wage laws are intended to protect local construction workers and contractors alike. Prior to the prevailing wage law, public works projects were assigned to the contractor bidding the lowest cost.
Such a system resulted in an incentive to drive down wages of local workers or bring in cheap labor from out of state.
Prevailing wage laws leveled the playing field for area contractors who wanted to do the right thing by hiring local workers and paying them a fair wage.
Our local governments could build projects the cheapest way, but as the old saying goes, you get what you pay for.
If our local tax dollars are going to be spent on building projects, shouldn’t that money stay in our local community by hiring local workers who are fairly compensated and will produce a better work product?
The choice is clear. Either you are in favor of investing in our local economy or you want the cheapest labor, regardless of the long-term cost to our community.
It’s one thing to talk the talk about investing in Milwaukee, it’s another entirely to walk the walk. Governor Walker failed on his job creation promise.
And now we’ve seen Walker and Republicans attacking the good-paying jobs that we have left in our community. It appears the only economic policy Republicans have left is to help the rich get richer.