MinnPost reports MN jobs in stimulus

If you have been reading my blog, you've noticed that my push on the stimulus is all about jobs, here and now. MinnPost has had excellent coverage on the stimulus and how it will affect Minnesota. Essentially, it comes down to Minnesota will be saving or creating a lot of good paying jobs. JOBS, JOBS, JOBS.... I can't emphasize how important a good paying job is to the economy. A good paying job essentially hold more economic weight. For example, a job at the Ford Ranger plant...a high skilled worker makes several retail or related jobs possible. Basically what it boils down to is if you save a well paid job, you save a lot more other jobs.

" To arrive at this number, some funding/tax cuts were reduced, others dropped.
One of the most talked about reductions was a cut of about $25 billion from a state fiscal stabilization fund. The fund had been $79 billion in the House and was lowered to $40 billion in the Senate. The compromise brought that amount back to $53.6 billion.n. ........

Negotiators also decided to cut back on spending that would have provided health insurance to the unemployed. The House version had provided a 65 percent subsidy for nine months. The Senate version reduced that to a 50 percent subsidy for 12 months. The compromise will include a 60 percent subsidy for nine months. The compromise also kept the elimination of the Medicaid option for unemployed individuals who are not eligible for COBRA, a provision that had been in the House version, but was cut out in the Senate........


Minnesota benefits
According to White House figures, here's what the compromise legislation provides Minnesota:

• 66,000 jobs created or saved over the next two years. (Under previous versions, this number was estimated at 70,000.) The jobs breakdown by Congressional is 7,100 in District 1, 8,400 in District 2, 7,600 in District 3, 7,000 in District 4, 7,200 in District 5, 8,700 in District 6, 6,800 in District 7 and 7,400 in District 8. (If you're a math person, these numbers do not equal 66,000… still.)

• A tax cut of up to $800 for 2,120,000 workers. (The cut had been $1,000 in previous legislation.)

• Makes 41,000 families eligible for a new American Opportunity Tax Credit. The credit is designed to make college affordable by creating a $2,500 partially refundable tax credit for four years of college.

• Offers an additional $100 per month in unemployment benefits to 331,000 workers in Minnesota who have lost their jobs in the recession and provides extended unemployment benefits to an additional 52,000 laid-off workers.

• Provides funding to modernize at least 91 schools in Minnesota."





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