New State & Local Policies

MODELS & BEST PRACTICES

Apollo Alliance (Seattle, WA)
www.apolloalliance.org
Founded in 2004, this effort, which has brought together environmentalists, politicians, and labor activities across the country, is promoting a national effort on renewable energy commensurate with the single-minded pursuit of space travel under President Kennedy's Apollo Project. The Alliance's goal is to have renewable sources of energy providing 15 percent of the nation's energy by 2015 and 20 percent by 2020.

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The Benefit Bank (Philadelphia, PA)
www.thebenefitbank.com
Every year, low-income households nationwide fail to claim billions of dollars in government benefits. The Benefit Bank since 2002 has assisted low-income households gain access to tax credits and public benefit programs. In 2007, it helped over 6,000 people file their tax returns, generating $7.5 million in tax refunds and credits, and assisted over 2,000 people receive more than $2.2 million in food stamp allocations. From its start in Pennsylvania, the Benefit Bank is now located in eight states.

BerkShares, Inc. (Great Barrington, MA)
www.berkshares.org
Launched in the fall of 2006 by the E.F. Schumacher Society and the Southern Berkshire Chamber of Commerce to encourage local shopping, BerkShares is a local currency that provides discounts for local residents who shop at local stores. The BerkShares group hopes the local currency will help build the local economy by keeping more dollars at home. In this manner, the group hopes to preserve local jobs and promote sustainable development by helping increase the level of community support of local owned enterprises and local manufacturing.

Center on Policy Initiatives (San Diego, CA)
www.onlinecpi.org
This San Diego-based group aims to promote an economy that offers good jobs, democratic workplaces, and access to health care for all residents. The group has worked on a variety of initiatives including living wage campaigns and corporate subsidy disclosure. In 2002, the group succeeded in getting the city of San Diego to adopt an economic development strategy Blueprint that calls for the use of “job quality reports” to evaluate the effectiveness of economic development projects.

Community Forklift (Edmonston, MD)
www.communityforklift.com
Founded in 2005, Community Forklift serves as a surplus and salvaged building materials outlet. The group manually disassembles buildings that are targeted for demolition so it can recover and recycle the materials for other uses. Nationally, between 1998 and 2002, 200 stores opened in this industry. According to the Washington-based Institute for Self-Reliance, sales in this sector as of 2002 had reached an estimated $70 million per year.

Connecticut Center for a New Economy (New Haven, CT)
www.ctneweconomy.org
CCNE is a non-profit organization that works to improve the economic and social well-being of families in Connecticut's urban centers, with a focus on raising wages of the working poor, improving public education and training, preserving affordable housing, and reforming immigration laws.

Co-op Care (Madison, WI)
www.wfcmac.coop
The Wisconsin Federation of Cooperatives succeeded in convincing the state legislature to pass a bill that facilitates the creation of five health care purchasing cooperatives in different regions of Wisconsin. The co-op provides a wide for workers at small businesses and family farmers to have health insurance. And member ownership helps ensure that health care decisions are truly made on the members' behalf.

East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy Oakland, CA) www.workingeastbay.org
EBASE brings together labor, community, and faith-based organizations with work to end low-wage poverty and create economic equity. In 2002, in part due to its advocacy efforts, 78% of City of Oakland voters voted to approve a “living wage” ordinance that raised the wages of 413 low-wage airport workers in the first year after the initiative's passage.

Front Range Economic Strategy Center (Denver, CO)
www.fresc.org
FRESC seeks to educate, organize, and empower the working families of Denver and the Front Range to hold governments and corporations accountable for responsible community-centered development. A community benefits agreement is the core strategy of FRESC's Campaign for Responsible Development. The efforts of the CRD coalition have been focused on the CBA goals of quality jobs, affordable housing, union construction, workers rights, and neighborhood improvements.

Good Jobs New York, (New York, NY)
www.goodjobsny.org
Good Jobs New York, a joint project of Good Jobs First and the Fiscal Policy Institute, serves as a clearinghouse of information about the costs and other key aspects of the largest New York City retention deals of the last decade. Besides investigating these deals, it provides information about accountability measures in use elsewhere, and other ways public resources can be used to strengthen the economy. In May 2005, advocacy efforts linked to its research led New York City to approve a corporate subsidy disclosure law.

High Road Vermont (Middlesex, VT)
www.highroadvermont.org
High Road Vermont focuses its efforts on organizing projects and policy campaigns that empower low-wage workers, their families and communities. Areas that High Road Vermont has worked on include living wage campaigns, universal health insurance, campaigns to strengthen standards of corporate accountability; and efforts to promote high wage economic development.

Keystone Research Center (Harrisburg, PA)
www.keystoneresearch.org
The Keystone Research Center conducts original research, produces reports, and promotes public dialogue that addresses important economic and civic problems. Among its accomplishments is the creation of an interactive GIS map which shows the distribution of state economic development projects down to the municipal – and often street address — level. See www.keystoneresearchmap.org.

Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (Los Angeles, CA)
www.laane.org
LAANE addresses issues affecting the working poor. It was one of the first groups to develop the concept of community benefit agreements, wherein developers receiving public subsidies make corresponding commitments to provide quality jobs and other community benefits. In 2004, LAANE helped pass the groundbreaking Los Angeles Superstore Ordinance, giving communities more control over the construction of big-box stores. That same year, LAANE negotiated a community benefits agreement that commits the Airport Authority to complete $500 million of community benefits projects in connection with its planned airport expansion. For details: www.laane.org/lax/cba.html.

Milwaukee Interfaith Congregations Allied for Hope (Milwaukee, WI) www.micahempowers.org
MICAH is a multiracial, interfaith organization committed to addressing justice issues that impact the Milwaukee community. In February 2005, MICAH succeeded in getting the County Board of Supervisors to approve the Park East Redevelopment Compact, a community benefits agreement with the project developer that will incorporate jobs for local residents and other benefits into the Park East neighborhood redevelopment plan.

New Rules Project, Institute for Local Self-Reliance (Minneapolis, MN)
www.newrules.org/retail/size.html
The New Rules website provides information about zoning laws that limit the size of big-box stores in more than 20 cities and counties across the United States, including such places as Hailey, Idaho; Flagstaff, Arizona; and Bozeman, Montana.

Proposition 63—“Millionaires Tax” (California) www.smartvoter.org/2004/11/02/ca/state/prop/63
In November 2004, over six million voters (53.7% of the 11.5 million votes cast) in the state of California voted to assess a 1% tax on taxable personal income above $1 million. This is projected to raise an estimated $800 million a year to fund expanded health services for mentally ill children, adults, and seniors. This website features information about the initiative, including the text of the legislation and a review of the arguments offered by initiative proponents and opponents.

Prosperity Campaign (Miami, FL)
www.prosperitycampaign.com
Started in Miami in 2003, the Prosperity Campaign has rapidly expanded statewide, providing tax and benefit counseling to low-income Florida families to help them claim benefits and begin to build household savings and wealth. The money at stake is substantial. The federal Earned Income Tax Credit, for example, is a refundable tax credit of up to $4,300 for low-income working families and individuals; the average family receives nearly $2,000 — but many fail to claim the money they are owed. In Miami-Dade County, the Prosperity Campaign tax outreach effort generated an additional $62 million in revenue in the first year, with the “multiplier” effect of local spending producing an impact of a quarter billion dollars on the local economy.