Minnesota families need family-sustaining jobs. They don’t need them in a year or a decade; they need jobs now. According to a new report by think tank Minnesota 2020, an investment in infrastructure can play a big role in creating more jobs.
The report, Stimulated and Growing: Multiplying the Recovery Act’s Minnesota Impact, shows the republican spin about the recovery act was just that.
The stimulus created or saved 3.6 million U.S. jobs, roughly 60,000 in Minnesota, boosted rebuilding of our crumbling infrastructure, invested in education, kept the unemployed from falling further into poverty and provided tax breaks to 95 percent of Americans. Respected economists say it helped prevent a depression.
“Infrastructure improvements and construction projects captured much of the national media attention, but at $48 billion they were a small fraction of the $800 billion stimulus,” said MN2020 Transportation Policy Fellow Conrad deFiebre, the report’s author. “Tax breaks, worth $288 billion, comprised the single largest federal stimulus expenditure, but didn’t directly create a single job.”
Despite the debate over its effectiveness, stimulus dollars will run out shortly. Minnesota, however, has a rare opportunity to enact its own version of the recovery act aimed specifically at public works projects that will enhance long-term economic development.
By custom, the Minnesota Legislature authorizes most borrowing for improvements to roads, bridges, state buildings and other public infrastructure in even-numbered years – next in 2012. Yet, continuing high unemployment, historically low bond interest rates, the state’s rock-solid bond rating and unexpectedly low contract bids make 2011 a prudent time to pass a big job-creating bonding bill.
“This second wave of funding will allow Minnesota to truly capitalize on the positive effects of the stimulus,” said deFiebre.
Based on this report and other noted economic studies, it’s clear that an infrastructure bill of at least a billion dollars needs to be the Legislature’s and Mark Dayton’s number one priority when the session starts in January. Minnesotans are ready to work, let’s create the jobs.