Council In the News Index

A Bigger Job Ahead (Boston Herald)

By Bill Brotherton
Monday, February 14, 2011

The Senate acted with uncharacteristic haste last week to halt a projected 40 percent increase in unemployment taxes paid by Massachusetts businesses, buying the instant gratitude of the business community.

But at the risk of looking a gift pol in the mouth, Beacon Hill is once again missing an important opportunity to adopt meaningful, cost-saving reforms that would encourage desperately-needed private sector job creation.

And for the record, we’ve lost track of the number of times we’ve been compelled to express that sentiment.

Let’s be clear — the rate freeze is important. Businesses struggling to recover from the economic collapse, struggling with higher health insurance costs, would have struggled even more to absorb that hike in the per-worker assessment that finances jobless benefits.

But Massachusetts continues to provide the most generous jobless benefits in the country — the only state to offer bene- fits for 30 weeks instead of 26, and where workers are entitled to full benefits after working only 15 weeks in a single quarter instead of 20.

In a well-timed analysis, the Pioneer Institute and the Massachusetts High Technology Council on Thursday cited the need to bring those standards in line with the rest of the country, quoting a research firm’s estimate that doing so would lead to the creation of 10,000 additional jobs, $3.8 billion in additional wages and $30 million in additional tax revenues.

But getting Massachusetts lawmakers to buck their union backers on this issue has been all but impossible. As it is, the head of the AFL-CIO lambasted the rate freeze alone as “irresponsible” and “fiscally reckless.”
In a hopeful sign, one Democratic senator called the rate freeze “phase one” and said reforms like those called for by Pioneer and the MHTC should be considered. “I’m committed, and I know there are a number of other senators and reps that are committed to reforming the system,” Sen. Steven A. Baddour (D-Methuen) told the State House News Service.

They need to follow through on that commitment.