HARRISBURG – Gov. Edward G. Rendell said Thursday that quick action is needed to help Pennsylvania withstand the economic punches from the struggling national economy. The state’s February unemployment rate1 rose to 7.5 percent, while the nonfarm job count2 dropped by 41,000 jobs.
“We cannot afford to wait for someone else to draw up a roadmap,” Rendell said. “Now is the time to get in the driver’s seat, restart our economy and get it moving ourselves.
“The fact that Pennsylvania continues to fare better than the nation – the state’s unemployment rate has been at or below the nation for 73 of the past 74 months – is overshadowed by the fact that we have lost more jobs in a month than at any time since 1996. Immediate action needs to be taken to provide our citizens with the opportunities they want and need to get back into the workforce.”
Last week, the governor called for urgent action by the General Assembly on his agenda for economic relief and recovery included in his 2009-10 state budget proposal. The proposal includes $537 million for job-creating infrastructure investments and $380 million for communities and state-owned universities to take on job-creating construction projects and attract new businesses among other investments to expand health care coverage and provide tuition relief and assistance.
“My budget proposal, and the $16 billion in federal recovery funding, will help put more Pennsylvanians to work, rebuild the state’s infrastructure, make businesses more competitive and ultimately position the state’s economy to emerge from these difficult times even stronger than before,” Rendell said.
The governor’s relief and recovery agenda focuses on jobs, health care and tuition relief. The Rendell administration has also taken a series of actions to help those who lost their jobs and are having difficulty navigating these challenging times, some of which include:
· Inviting 16,000 uninsured people to join adultBasic – the state’s health care program for uninsured adults;
· Releasing $5 million in Career Opportunity Grants to help retrain 1,000 unemployed Pennsylvanians for jobs in the emerging green collar sector;
· Committing $6.6 million to extend home heating assistance until April 3, to benefit approximately 19,000 families;
· Expanding operations of PA CareerLink – the state’s one-stop for job services and retraining programs – across the state in the coming months; and
· Holding “Here to Help” events in every county over the next two months to provide in-person access to vital state and local services.
Rendell also pointed to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act as another way the state can get moving on projects that will create jobs and boost the economy.
Earlier this week he signed documents certifying that more than $1 billion in federal recovery funds will be used for transportation projects that, when combined with the $1.8 billion in transportation projects already on the books for this year, will be the state’s largest-ever infrastructure investment.
“It is not every day that I get to sign letters that will put some 10,000 workers who were recently laid off back to work,” Rendell said. “I am proud that Pennsylvania is ahead of the curve and ready to make President Obama’s stimulus program a reality in our communities – and this is just the beginning.”
The governor noted that in transportation, every $1 billion of new spending creates approximately 30,000 direct and indirect jobs.
“In roughly 90 days, thousands of Pennsylvania workers will be packing a lunch again and reporting to work to repair bridges, roads and tunnels in every corner of our state.”
More details on the governor’s economic recovery plan are available online.