Cheryle Jackson releases job plan for Illinois families
CHICAGO – U. S. Senate candidate Cheryle Jackson today announced the release of her five-point plan to create new jobs and build economic opportunities for Illinois families. Jackson described the plan as one of the cornerstones of her campaign, stating that creating jobs and helping encourage economic development is an area in which she has particular expertise and hands-on experience.
Jackson quoted Reverend Martin Luther King as inspiration for her plan to get Illinois working again:
“Equality means dignity. And dignity demands a job and a paycheck that lasts through the week,” said King.
The Jackson plan covers incentives to small business to create new jobs, redirecting tax breaks from multinational corporations that ship jobs out of the country to businesses that create jobs in the U. S., reforming Small Businesses Administration (SBA) rules to get desperately needed capital to small businesses, increasing job training funds available to community colleges, community groups and small businesses, and reorienting stimulus spending to focus on to job creation in local communities and in energy efficiency and clean energy jobs.
“At the Chicago Urban League, I stood on the front lines fighting for jobs and economic empowerment for families. I see first hand what people and communities need to recover and transform. It’s time to take our job policies – and our money -- out of the hands of bankers and into the hands of everyday people,” said Jackson. “My 5-point plan is geared toward getting our economy moving again, and putting people back to work. That’s the only way we’re going to pull out of this recession.”
Jackson is known for redirecting and reenergizing the Chicago Urban League; as President and CEO, she shifted its focus from social service to economic empowerment and development. She also launched the innovative NEXTone program to spur and support entrepreneurs, trained and placed hundreds of people in employment, created new jobs, and sued the governor for equity and quality in education, a critical factor in economic transformation.
Cheryle Jackson’s Five Point Jobs Plan
I. Create new policies and priorities to stimulate small business development:
- Redirect excess TARP funds to community banks that loan to small businesses.
- Target TARP funds to Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFI) and increase level of CDFI microloans
- Suspend for one year payroll tax for eligible small businesses; use stimulus funds to pay into social security funds for affected workers
- Suspend for one year capital gains tax on investments in small businesses that create jobs.
- Provide tax credits to small businesses that hire and retain employees
- Provide incentives and funding for university and college research to drive entrepreneurial application and grow businesses.
- Reform SBA lending rules that prevent banks from getting capital into the hands of small businesses; the liquidity, cash flow and collateral criteria must also be reformed in addition to increasing guarantees.
- Increase funding for the SBA Microloan Program and extend and reform the ARC stabilization loans.
- Create a fund of grants and loans to help small business owners to refinance debt.
II. Target government contracts to small businesses
- Reverse the trend of the last eight years by targeting federal contracts more effectively to small businesses – not Fortune 500 companies.
- Target state contracts to local small businesses.
- Create a clear path for small businesses to do business with government.
- Increase government contracting opportunities for women and minority owned businesses.
III. Take tax cuts away from multinational corporations that send jobs oversees and redirect them to businesses that create jobs in the U. S.
IV. Job training and readiness
- Increase job training funds available to community colleges, community groups, apprenticeship programs and senior citizens.
- Reform the Workforce Investment Act to place more focus on job training and not only job placement.
- Provide on-the-job training subsidies for small and medium sized businesses.
- Link No Child Left Behind to Workforce Investment Act to create better school-to-work opportunities particularly for high school drop-outs.
- Increase funding for summer and afterschool jobs program for youth in high-unemployment areas.
- Make the American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent which provides a $2,500 college tax credit for low-income and middle-class families send their kids to college.
- Increase the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit to help families pay for child care so they can work.
V. Focus stimulus spending on jobs and communities:
- Move the funds out the door more quickly for capital projects in Illinois.
- Better target and expand stimulus funding to spur innovation and new energy efficiency and clean energy jobs by focusing investment in existing and emerging small businesses, i.e. “shovel-ready” small businesses
- Provide additional financial and tax incentives to U.S. companies to invest in clean energy jobs.
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