By Crystal Swann
February 12, 2007

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa January 25 outlined a bold new plan to “repair the economic ladder” in America. Villaraigosa, chair of the Conference of Mayors Task Force on Poverty, Work and Opportunity, put forward strong recommendations aimed at improving the access to wealth from those who work hard everyday and still remain in poverty.

Armed with the idea that work should pay and that if you work hard and play by the rules, you should be able to provide a good life for you and your family, Villaraigosa along with his task force co-chairs, set out on a year-long journey to develop scientifically sound recommendation for the task force to consider. Over the last 12 months, Villaraigosa convened over six meetings of national poverty and economic opportunity experts and mayors to discuss how the nation’s mayors could change the national dialogue around poverty in this country. Under his leadership and vision, the task force began the work of dissecting and discussing the various federal policies and the best local models to determine which initiative held promise to put forward as a national agenda.

In the document called “Repairing the Economic Ladder, A Transformative Investment Strategy to Reduce Poverty and Expand America’s Middle Class,” Villaraigosa puts forward for consideration by the mayors a well thought out, well-researched, set of recommendation based on five guiding criteria. The recommendations must be “grounded in the reality set by our changing world; supported by evidence or proven on-the-ground results; demonstrated bipartisan support; fiscally responsible; and highly leveraged. In that regard, he recommended three investment strategies aimed at the middle and working class.

First, the plan recommends investing in high-quality public education for tomorrow’s workers by investing in universal preschool for child. “Most education experts agree that a pre-k to 20 systems that provides students with a consistent ladder of learning from pre-kindergarten through college represents an ideal public education,” states the document. Second, it recommends investing in the life-long education and skills development of tomorrow’s workers by “shoring up the funding shortfalls of positive potential programs such as Pell grant and Workforce Investment Act and providing incentives for public/private partnerships in workforce development.” Additionally, it recommends that “the federal government open a savings account for every child born in this country, depositing up to $500 at the child’s birth and providing an annual income-indexed match of up to $500 for deposits made by family and third parties, until the child’s 18th birthday.”

Finally, the plan calls for an investment in economic opportunities for tomorrow’s workers by boosting the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and increasing the minimum wage. In calling on the federal government to invest $19 billion in a substantial expansion of the EITC and expand eligibility. Additional to increasing the minimum wage, the plan recommends the formation of a panel to evaluate the creation of a comprehensive family tax credit, which would pool together the many different tax credits that currently support lower income, working families.

Villaraigosa and the other co-chairs: Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Burnsville (MN) Mayor Elizabeth Kautz, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, along with the new chairs: Newark Mayor Cory Booker and Oakland Mayor Ronald Dellums, will be hosting several local hearings to discuss the task force’s final recommendations to The U.S. Conference of Mayors being presented at the 75th Annual Meeting in June 2007.

To view Villaraigosa’s speech, go to the website usmayors.org.and click on 75th Winter Meeting. To download a copy of Villaraigosa’s recommendations go to usmayors.org/chhs.