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Seattle Times, Brookings Institute: to boost economy, put hard hats to work

Rebuilding our state’s old, crumbling buildings and infrastructure would create thousands of jobs in Washington state today – and thousands more for generations to come.

That’s the conclusion of Seattle Times economic columnist Jon Talton, who points out Washington state is still benefiting from things built during the New Deal back in the 1930’s. Talton sums things up this way:

Last week I lamented that Americans seem stuck with a mostly 1970-era infrastructure and lack the political will — certainly not the money, considering the trillions we blew on failed wars — to move forward. This is not the nation that built transcontinental railroads, the Interstate Highway System, the waterborne trade of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and the air transport system. All heavily subsidized.

Investing in 21st century infrastructure (not just “roads and bridges”) would not only maintain our global economic edge (which funds the giant military) but also create jobs. Even the largely legacy system we have now is a big employer, as shown by a new study from the Brookings Institution.

The House of Representatives passed two major construction efforts in the last two years – a $10.3 billion transportation plan last year and this session, a $700 million plan to build schools.

A total of 100,000 jobs would be created by the transportation package, while the school construction plan would create 7,000 jobs.

The transportation plan gained urgency when a bridge over I-5 collapsed. Many of our state’s bridges and highways are quite old and need repairs or replacement.

The school construction plan isn’t part of a wish list, but directly related to a state Supreme Court order that lawmakers fund the opportunity for a basic education for every child, per the state constitution. That includes paying teachers with state funds and reducing overcrowded classrooms, especially in kindergarten through third grade, according to the Supreme Court.

In the House, the transportation package passed House Bill 1954 in the first year of this two-year session, while the school construction plan sailed through with strong support from lawmakers from both parties earlier this year, passing on a vote of 90-7.

Both of those efforts died in the Senate.

There’s a difference between construction jobs involved with building houses or private buildings versus the public structures we all use. In the report by the Brookings Institute, researchers found 11 percent of all jobs in America were related to public infrastructure.

Talton found exactly that percentage of infrastructure jobs in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area.

Brookings also found that these jobs don’t require a bachelor’s degree, pay much better wages compared to average occupations and “have low barriers of entry,” which is fancy researcher speak for “these jobs are easier to get.” There’s more on-the-job training than in other fields, where you probably need to get a certification or degree first.

Although the economy has recovered from the Great Recession, construction workers still face higher levels of unemployment.

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