Obama Jobs Plan Would Give Slight Boost To Calif.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- California would get a boost under President Barack Obama's jobs proposal to cut taxes and increase spending, but it will not be enough to solve all the state's unemployment and budget problems.
Stephen Levy, senior economist at the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy, said he would have liked to see a larger package for a state with 12 percent unemployment, the second highest in the nation.
"I like the plan. I would have liked more," Levy said Friday.
According to the administration, California would get more than $13 million to prevent layoffs of teachers and public safety workers, modernize schools and community colleges, and build highways and public transit. It would provide an estimated $4 billion to support 51,500 construction jobs, $3.6 billion to support up to 37,300 teachers and first responders, and $2.8 billion on school upgrades for as many as 36,600 jobs.
The president proposed changes to unemployment insurance, which could help as many as 1 million long-term unemployed Californians. Obama also proposed a new "Pathways Back to Work Fund" to provide low income youths and adults with job training.
The program could help 19,800 adults and 58,600 young people in California.
The plan also calls for cutting the payroll tax in half to 3.1 percent for employers for the first $5 million in wages, which could benefit an estimated 710,000 businesses in California.
The jobs plan would extend the worker payroll tax cut passed last December. By cutting that tax in half next year, a typical working California family with a median income of about $56,000 would get a tax cut of about $1,740.
State Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, a Democrat from Van Nuys who is chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, said the president's job proposal focuses on the best methods to get the economy moving forward.
"There's almost no better way to infuse the economy with both jobs and spending than a focus on infrastructure, and I think he's very wise to do that," Blumenfield said.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
