Job Creation Fund

•The most direct way to create jobs is by directly creating jobs.

•The Maine Job Creation Fund would invest a billion dollars into the Maine economy by directly funding jobs creation in key areas of the Maine economy like:

• Manufacturing
• Healthcare
• Infrastructure Repair and Development (including subsidies for weatherization audit jobs)
• Clean energy and other natural resource-based industries

•It would be governed by a board comprised of representatives from a wide array of businesses, labor, as well as middle and low-income workers that have personally experienced unemployment.

•It would be funded through the Fair Share Revenue Plan.

•The Job Creation Fund would also turn Maine’s current set of economic development tax breaks into grant programs that businesses would have to apply for regularly.  This will ensure taxpayers know exactly how the money is being spent, and allow Maine to finally have a coherent jobs policy—not one created in an ad-hoc manner through the tax code.

Problem

•More than 100,000 Maine workers remain unemployed or underemployed.

•Maine lost 1,300 jobs in 2011.

•Maine was one of only 9 states that lost jobs in 2011—ranking 5th from the bottom overall.

•29,000 Mainers have lost jobs since the beginning of the recession.

•If nothing changes, at this rate it will take four more years to return to pre-recession job levels in Maine. 

•Maine already spends more in tax breaks than on actual programs in the state budget.  Usually, the ostensible purpose for these tax breaks is job creation.

•According to accountable development watchdog organization Good Jobs First, Maine ranks just:

• 29th in online transparency around subsidy disclosure
• 21st  in job creation and job quality standards
• 41st in our ability to ensure our resources were put to good use

•Clearly, Maine lacks an effective, coherent jobs policy.

Why a Job Creation Fund

•Large corporations and the rich continue to make record profits while the rest of Maine and America is stuck in the worst economic downturn since the great depression.  The Job Creation Fund will directly break that log jam by moving resources to areas of the economy ripest to create jobs.

•The free market on its own isn’t going to fix our problems.  We need our elected officials to step up and demonstrate real leadership.

•Jobs don’t “trickle down.”  Everyone in our society will get their fair shot when everyone pays their fair share.Answers to Common Objections:

•Large corporations aren’t going to save us.  Unfortunately, they have never been better off and we still haven’t seen any jobs.

•Likely, most of these jobs created under this plan will be in the private sector, even though they will still receive significant public sector funding.  

•The Job Creation Fund will be a transparent, flexible body that reports directly to the Legislature.

Links to more information

•Analysis of current Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs outlook by the Maine Center for Economic Policy: http://www.mecep.org/view.asp?news=2158

•Good Jobs First analysis of Maine Economic Development Subsidies: http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/states/maine

•Maine Revenue Services tax expenditure and economic development subsidy report: http://www.maine.gov/revenue/research/homepage.html

•Bureau of Economic Analysis on US Corporate Profits: http://www.bea.gov/newsreleases/national/gdp/2012/pdf/gdp4q11_3rd.pdf

•New York Times analysis of record corporate profits: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/26/business/for-companies-the-good-old-da...