With the advent of welfare reform, people and governments are scrambling to find ways to provide jobs and training to those who have been on the welfare rolls and could end up living on the streets once their benefits end. I would like to join this debate, outlining a program that with a one time start up grant or loan, will pay for itself once it is underway.
A program could be instituted, at minimal or no cost to the government, that would provide training and marketable skills to unskilled, hard-core unemployed young people in urban ghettos, rehabilitate abandoned houses, and expand the tax base. This program would provide on-the-job training in the building trades to unemployed, unskilled. youths by having them rehabilitate abandoned houses. This program would be run by either public trade schools or by such nonprofit organizations as the Opportunities Industrialization Center (O.I.C.), and would be financed by a one-time start-up grant, which could be raised from private contributions, although government assistance would enable a larger program to be instituted. This grant would pay for tools, building materials, salaries for instructors and building inspectors and provide minimum wages to students participating in the program conditional to satisfactory progress and not committing any crimes during their participation in the program.
Upon completion of repairs to the abandoned house, and following inspection and certification by building inspectors, the rehabilitated house would then be sold on the open market at market prices, with all proceeds going back into the program to be used on other houses. Once several houses have been repaired and sold, there should be enough money available to finance repairs to houses that could. be used for poor homeless people and group homes for deinstitutionalized mental patients who find themselves struggling to survive on the streets.
This program would expand the tax base in three ways. First, it would provide jobs for those who were previously unemployed. During their participation in the program, these people will only be earning the minimum wage, but it is hoped that their newly acquired skills will enable them to obtain higher paying jobs. Second, new homeowners will expand the property tax base. Third, as neighborhoods improve, businesses will move into these areas in order to serve the new residents, which will provide more tax revenues for the locality. As mentioned above, once the program is underway, houses will be able to be set aside for the homeless without extra cost to the government and therefore easing the burden on hard pressed services to the poor. This program to remove urban blight will also help the struggling timber and building supplies industries thus providing more jobs and improving the economy.
Another area where we need to invest more money is the rebuilding of our infrastructure, the roads, bridges, mass transit systems, water and waste water treatment systems, utilities and telecommunications system that holds our society together. These improvements will be very expensive. How do we pay for it?
The government could establish a fund for the rehabilitation of the infrastructure to be funded by contributions from individuals, corporations and foundations. The donor could designate half of the contribution to be used for a specific project (the donor could list five projects and the money would be directed toward one or more of these), and the other half of the donation would go into a general fund to be used where it is needed most. This could be set up in such a way that the government would not lose tax revenue by having only a certain percentage of the contribution, say 60% or 75%, would be tax deductible. Incentives that could be used to increase contributions would include lower long term fuel and maintenance costs for vehicles, cleaner water, and a safer, more efficient and more reliable transportation system.
With a little creativity, we can figure out how to pay for the projects we need to do to help our society become more productive and humane. Please leave me your comments and suggestions. I will add some of the more creative suggestions to this page as I have the chance.
I welcome your comments, both positive and negative. I feel that honest criticism can only improve this site.
|
This page was last updated December 5, 1998.
Return to Moore Hope for the Future Main Page.
Check out the Latest News from Around the World.
Go to More Money for Social Security (Without Raising Taxes or Cutting Benefits) paper.