The Case of the Missing Jobs Plan Defeats Even the Great Super Sleuth

Yesterday in Albany, Jobs with Justice affiliates from Long Island, New York City, and Buffalo, as well as labor unions and community groups from across the state converged in the capital to assist the great super sleuth himself in finding the missing jobs plan for the state. As the legislative session in Albany comes to an end, many people are left wondering the whereabouts of the economic development initiative that will create sustainable, permanent, living-wage jobs for more local New Yorkers. The Coalition of Economic Justice sent a delegation of 7 people to this event, which consisted of the skit, a formal press conference in a room in the Legislative Office Building, and visits to representatives in the state senate and assembly. The skit and the press conference were a crowd-pleasing success. Clad in a ridiculous outfit complete with a pipe and an oversized magnifying glass, Austin Guest of the Alliance for Greater New York (ALIGN) ran around the buildings in the capital complex asking if people have seen the missing jobs plan. The result was powerful: everyone he met, including staffers of legislators, tourists on the street, democrats, republicans, and interns, came to the general consensus that the jobs plan is not in fact in Albany. Instead, it is in our cities and towns, where labor and community leaders, environmental advocates, academics, local business owners and others work day in and day out to create an economy built on good jobs and shared prosperity.

In response to this economic crisis, and the fear that Governor Cuomo’s proposed regional economic development councils might make the same mistakes of old, ALIGN published a report entitled “ Seizing the Moment: How Regional Economic Development Councils Can Build a Good Jobs Economy,” which was distributed at the press conference and to the offices of legislators. In the report, three key points are stressed as imperative additions to the Regional Economic Development Council model. They are implementing performance standards, maintaining accountability, and operating with transparency. In essence, there needs to be mechanisms in place that will hold companies accountable so that subsidized projects actually achieve the goal of sustainable job creation. The whole process also needs to be open to the public, since taxpayers deserve to know exactly how their money is being spent. ALIGN, CEJ, and their allies support the idea of the regional economic development councils as a model with great potential. However, they need to redefine their role and judge “success” based on outcomes to achieve real economic development. That is the missing jobs plan.

Yesterday, the Buffalo delegation was able to deliver the report and talk to the staff of Assembly members Crystal Peoples-Stokes and Sam Hoyt, as well as Senators Tim Kennedy, Mark Grisanti, Mike Ranzenhofer, and Pat Gallivan. We hope that this action and these visits planted the seeds for future discussions in Albany on how to make the regional economic development councils work for the working people across the state.

On a related note, there have been rumors that the super sleuth himself may make a surprise appearance right here in Buffalo next week as he continues the search for the jobs plan. Stay tuned for more updates.

Here is the link to the funny video of the super sleuth in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0auXtdhe7b4