The Reading Eagle reports meals on wheels for low-income and disabled adults is short of cash thanks to rising demand and falling state support.

• Bruce Posten, Reading Eagle — Funding gap looms for Meals on Wheels program: State budget cuts may cause group to suspend some deliveries

Because of state budget cuts, a Berks County Meals on Wheels program is running out of money and won't be able to operate between March and July unless new funds are found.

The special program is $7,000 short...The program has almost doubled in the number of meals served in the past two years...

"Last month, we served 370 meals (at a cost of $5.84 per person), but we are trying to keep a cap on participation in the program." Kropf said. "We are turning people away because we don't have enough money."

The U.S. Labor Department has fined the Hershey Co. Contractor that inspired a crack down on J-1 Visa violations.

• David Wenner, Patriot-News — Foreign student labor protests at Hershey Co. center lead to citations for Exel, SHS Staffing

The U.S. Labor Department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited Exel Inc. for nine workplace safety and health violations and proposed fines of $291,000 against the company.

Ohio-based Exel, which runs the distribution center for The Hershey Co., said it will appeal.

The citations stem from an investigation initiated after about 200 foreign exchange students walked off the job and demonstrated in August.

The students said they were overworked and underpaid and given a cultural-exchange experience that was far less than what they expected...

OSHA cited Exel for alleged violations that include failing to record work-related injuries and illnesses over a four-year period and failing to carry out an effective program to protect workers’ hearing.

OSHA also cited SHS Staffing Solutions, the Lemoyne-based staffing company that hired the students. SHS faces a proposed penalty of $5,000 for allegedly failing to properly train the workers...

Jeff Beckman, a spokesman for The Hershey Co., referred questions to Exel, and noted that Exel was responsible for the staffing and operation of the distribution center, which is in Palmyra.

The National Guestworker Alliance organized last summer’s walkout and has advocated for the foreign students.

The alliance said Tuesday that the citations “vindicate the claims by our members that Hershey’s subcontractors, Exel and SHS, ignored and repressed complaints about serious health and safety violations over a period of many years.”

It called the situation a “case study of the way a major corporation uses a subcontracting giant to kill decent U.S. jobs.”

The Philadelphia Daily News reports state budgets could jeopardize federal funds for HIV/AIDS programs in Philadelphia.

• Jan Ransom, Philadelphia Daily News — Philly bracing for big cuts in Pa. budget: Under proposed state budget city faces $41 million cut:

THE CITY'S mental-health, homeless and human-services programs would be cut to the bone should Gov. Corbett's proposed budget pass, and city officials warn that it's bad news for Philly's most vulnerable residents...

More than 400 community residential beds would be eliminated, as well as case-management services for people with chronic severe mental illness and those with substance-abuse issues.

Homeless-outreach services would be reduced, and detoxification, residential-rehab inpatient and outpatient treatment would be eliminated.

Additionally, there would be a loss of hospice beds for those with AIDS; a reduction in nursing-home beds and maternal- and child-health services, including those for families with children of special needs; and prenatal care for the uninsured...

The cuts could jeopardize $24 million in federal funds for the city's HIV/AIDS programs, may lead to an increase in homeless and prison populations, and more costs for the Department of Human Services and more demand for emergency shelter.

The Erie Times-News reports this morning that Governor Tom Corbett's decision to implement an asset test for food assistance in Pennsylvania is expected to drive more people to seek help in already overburdened soup kitchens.

In other news this morning, it has fallen to charitable foundations to fund programs to help identify the public health impacts of Marcellus Shale development.

• Gerry Weiss, Erie Times-News — Changes in food-stamp program draw ire from Erie critics of asset testing:

When Sister Mary Miller took over Emmaus Ministries in 1980, she dreamed of one day being able to close the agency's soup kitchen, hoping the need would no longer be there.

In 1980, the kitchen served about 100 people a day.

Today, the facility ... serves close to 200 people daily, feeding a city racked by a skyrocketing poverty crisis.

The soup kitchen's numbers are likely to rise even more in the coming months, Miller believes, when major changes in the state's food-stamp program will eliminate some area residents from those eligible to receive the government benefits.

On May 1, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare will reinstate asset testing for people seeking to qualify for food stamps, known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program...

Critics of the asset test, like Miller, insist the move will hurt thousands of people who are already struggling, penalize those who save money, and burden food pantries, soup kitchens and social-service agencies that are already overwhelmed.

"To think, I once hoped there would be a time where we wouldn't need the soup kitchen," the Erie Benedictine nun and director of Emmaus said. "Now, with this, the door of the soup kitchen will only have to become wider."

The Intelligencer Journal in Lancaster details a funding crisis at a non-profit that helps people become self-sufficient.

• Dan Nephin - Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era — Empowerment program at YWCA faces cuts: Alternate funding sought for New Choices

[The New Choices] program which has quietly helped women for nearly 30 years is facing a challenging financial future, according to officials.

Several years ago, the program had an annual budget of around $178,000 and a staff of five.

Current state funding is $31,000, and, after recently laying off an employee, the program is down to one staffer, director Tricia Nabors said.

Since 1985, the program has helped more than 2,500 women and an estimated 3,500 children, [Lancaster County Career & Technology Foundation President King] Knox said.

"The common theme of our student is lack of formal education, consequently lack of job skills, which limits the access of occupations that provide self-sufficient wages," Nabors said. ...

"We provide opportunity for women to come in, get educated, obtain some job skills and reduce the need to be on any type of assistance," she said.

People who complete the program go on to good jobs, Knox said.

" … we're seeing individuals with full-time jobs earning $16, $18, $20 an hour or more, depending on their chosen profession, with benefits," he said. "So they're off the public roll so to speak. They're out of the cycle of poverty and welfare. And that's the whole point of this."

While existing programs are facing rising demand and declining state support, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports this morning that it has fallen to charitable foundations to fund programs to help identify the public health impacts of Marcellus Shale development.  

• Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — First-ever shale health office opens:

A new, first-of-its-kind medical program to assess both the individual and public health impacts of widespread Marcellus Shale gas development has begun in Washington County.

The nonprofit Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project opened an office in McMurray last week in response to what it termed growing local and medical concerns over the potential health effects from hazardous chemical and pollutant releases associated with the rapid growth of shale gas development.

The nonprofit health project, funded by the Heinz Endowments, the Pittsburgh Foundation and the Claneil Foundation, opened its office last week on Washington Road in McMurray.

The office will help area residents recognize and understand exposure pathways in the air and water, and schedule medical exams and evaluations to diagnose health problems that may result from them, said Raina Rippel, project director. An on-site Washington County nurse practitioner is available by appointment for home visits, exams and consultations, and already has conducted several patient assessments...

In addition to providing individual medical care, the program is the first in the nation to attempt to assess the health impacts from shale gas drilling in any comprehensive and methodical way, said David Brown, a public health toxicologist in Connecticut and director of Public Health Toxicology for Environment and Human Health Inc., which helped design the program.

Paul Krugman leads off this morning with a review of the havoc created in Europe and here at home by what he calls the Pain Caucus.

• Paul Krugman, New York Times - Pain Without Gain:

Specifically, in early 2010 austerity economics — the insistence that governments should slash spending even in the face of high unemployment — became all the rage in European capitals. The doctrine asserted that the direct negative effects of spending cuts on employment would be offset by changes in “confidence,” that savage spending cuts would lead to a surge in consumer and business spending, while nations failing to make such cuts would see capital flight and soaring interest rates. If this sounds to you like something Herbert Hoover might have said, you’re right: It does and he did...

Now the results are in — and they’re exactly what three generations’ worth of economic analysis and all the lessons of history should have told you would happen. The confidence fairy has failed to show up: none of the countries slashing spending have seen the predicted private-sector surge. Instead, the depressing effects of fiscal austerity have been reinforced by falling private spending. The point is that we could actually do a lot to help our economies simply by reversing the destructive austerity of the last two years.

That’s true even in America, which has avoided full-fledged austerity at the federal level but has seen big spending and employment cuts at the state and local level. Remember all the fuss about whether there were enough “shovel ready” projects to make large-scale stimulus feasible? Well, never mind: all the federal government needs to do to give the economy a big boost is provide aid to lower-level governments, allowing these governments to rehire the hundreds of thousands of schoolteachers they have laid off and restart the building and maintenance projects they have canceled.

Speaking of the Pain Caucus, Governor Corbett is touring the state to defend his budget proposal. He was in Pittsburgh on Friday and the good people at One Pittsburgh rolled out the red carpet for him. 

• Kaitlynn Riely, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Corbett defends his proposed $27 billion budget Governor cites vow to not raise taxes

"I'm actually trying to act like you, a business," Mr. Corbett said to John Stanik, the president and CEO, after touring the company's Findlay site, where ultraviolet light technology to clean water is developed...Mr. Corbett, who has been traveling around the state this week promoting his budget, reiterated his commitment Friday to not raising taxes and explained his thinking regarding higher-education funding, a part of his budget proposal that has received sharp criticism.

Under his proposal, the 14 state-owned universities would see a 20 percent reduction from the current budget. Three state-related schools -- the University of Pittsburgh, Penn State and Temple -- would see a 30 percent cut. The schools also saw sharp cuts in state funding this year.  "In the overall scheme of things, that's not as bad as it could be," [Corbett] said. "It could be a lot worse."...

Most of his comments focused on higher education, but Mr. Corbett also took questions on transportation funding, an especially controversial issue in the Pittsburgh area. The Port Authority has begun planning for a 35 percent reduction in service that will happen in September without a solution to the statewide transportation funding shortfall. When he unveiled his budget proposal, Mr. Corbett said transportation funding was "not a budget item." He said transportation is too large and must be handled as its own separate topic. On Friday, he provided no solutions or details about possible answers to the Port Authority's funding crisis beyond saying he has "had some preliminary discussions behind the scenes" with legislators.

As Michael Wood has pointed out the Governor has made the state budget shortfall worse by allowing corporations making record profits to pay even less in taxes.  The result is more budget cuts than necessary and a vision of shared sacrifice in which tax cuts are targeted at the affluent while most of the actual sacrifice is borne by the most vulnerable in our society. 

This morning the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reviews the impact on the disabled from the failure to provide more transportation funding.

• Tina Calabro, Post-Gazette - Port Authority cuts threaten to squelch the independence that many people with disabilities have worked hard to attain:

Allegheny County is reeling from the Port Authority's proposal to increase fares, reduce operating hours and eliminate bus routes as a means to address a projected $64 million deficit in the upcoming fiscal year. Part of that proposal is a 35 percent reduction to ACCESS, the paratransit program for people under 65 with disabilities..,service cuts...threaten to squelch the independence that many people with disabilities have worked hard to attain and that the community champions. Further, the cuts would dismantle a 32-year-old system of accessible transportation that is lauded as one of the most efficient and effective in the nation...

Karin Thum, 34, would lose service completely. She moved from eastern Pennsylvania in 2009 to live at The Gatehouse, a residential program...to help young adults transition to living on their own. Ms. Thum uses ACCESS for a wide range of activities, including transportation to her volunteer job at a hospice center.

Ms. Thum and her fiance, John Fitzgerald, 24, also a Gatehouse resident, plan to move to their own apartment in May and would like to remain in the Wexford area where their jobs are but which is not included on the new service map. "We rely on ACCESS," Mr. Fitzgerald said. "We wouldn't be able to go anywhere without it."

While fare increases and reduced hours concern ACCESS users, the drastic change in the service area has people most alarmed. People like Jeff Hladio, 30, who would not be able to ride from Bridgeville to his job at the Pennsylvania National Guard facility in Coraopolis...

Marilyn Golden, senior policy analyst and transportation specialist at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund in Berkeley, Calif., said Allegheny County's ACCESS system "stands out as a leader" among paratransit systems across the nation and is widely emulated. In 2005, ACCESS won the U.S. Department of Transportation's "United We Ride" award.

Finally Nancy Folbre has a wonky but excellent post about the importance of taking into account both the costs and benefits of tax policy. 

• Nancy Folbre, New York Times:Economix - Intergenerational Accounting at the Public Mutual Fund and Insurance Company

Most discussions of taxes and benefits treat either one or the other in isolation. This is not helpful. Imagine telling investors what they pay for shares of a company without explaining what they get in dividends or capital gains, or explaining the costs of insurance without specifying the benefits.

What both investors and taxpayers should focus on is the difference between costs and benefits, appropriately discounted to reflect differences in their timing...

..economists Antoine Bommier, Ronald Lee, Timothy Miller and Stéphane Zuber..explicitly takes the benefits of public education into account. Their analysis reveals a much more sustainable intergenerational contract from which most Americans directly benefit. By their calculations, increasing public investments in education have more than offset the increased tax burden of support for the elderly. In other words, benefits received both early and late in life add up to more than the value of taxes paid.

I’ve described a similar way of looking at intergenerational transfers in two earlier posts, one offering a simple estimate of “tax payback year,” calculating how many years it would take average taxpayers to repay the value of public spending on their education and another summarizing research (to which Ronald Lee and Timothy Miller also contributed) on the economic contributions of parents — who, after all, are raising future taxpayers...

We pool investments in a very important set of productive assets – the capabilities of the younger generation – and the payoff helps provide for our health and security in old age. Adults have an incentive to invest in public education because public pensions allow them to capture part of the returns.

This week, we blogged about a proposed state block grant and funding cut for county human services, the end of a mortgage assistance program in Pennsylvania, high student loan debt and more.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• On the state budget, Chris Lilienthal shared a table from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center explaining the Governor's proposal to combine funding for a variety of county-level human services into a single block grant and cut it by 20%.
• On housing, Mark Price wrote about how the state's decision to end the Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP) could harm Pennsylvania's economic recovery.
• And in the Morning Must Reads this week, Mark Price blogged about news stories on the student loan "debt bomb," the rise in homelessness in shale country, extended unemployment benefits and prevailing wage, and why delaying school construction is penny wise but pound foolish.

More blog posts next week. Keep us bookmarked and join the conversation!

Three years have passed since the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Michael Linden of the Center for American Progress explains the impact of the Recovery Act on the economy. 

 

On the state budget, WITF shares a link to help you estimate the impact of cuts to education spending in your area.

• Megan Lello and Radio Pennsylvania, WITF — Online calculator shows losses from education cuts:

An education group that's based in central Pennsylvania has created a way to display the effect that cuts to public education could have had on the state's school districts. The Pennsylvania State Education Association in Harrisburg has launched an online calculator that shows the total dollar amount each district is expected to have lost within the last two fiscal years.

Both The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette have good stories this morning on the "student loan debt bomb."

• Alan J. Heavens, The Philadelphia Inquirer — Leaving college with a degree and thousands in debt:

Part of the problem is that most students do not know what they are getting into. The new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is working on a one-page financial-aid shopping sheet to help students figure out how much in federal loans and private loans they should consider taking on, and what kind of loan repayments will follow after graduation.

 

• Bob Willis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — Student debt hinders housing:

As outstanding student debt approaches $1 trillion, it's one more reason record-low interest rates aren't doing more to boost housing. The tighter lending standards that have emerged in the wake of the recession weigh particularly on younger, first-time home buyers, according to a Federal Reserve study sent to Congress on Jan. 4. These households tend to be younger and often have relatively new credit profiles, lower-than-average credit scores and fewer economic resources to make a large down payment, the report said...

The Fed's white paper said 9 percent of 29- to 34-year-olds got a first-time mortgage between 2009 and 2011, compared with 17 percent 10 years earlier. "These data suggest a large decline in mortgage borrowing by potential first-time homebuyers due to not only weaker housing demand, but also the effect of tighter credit conditions," the Fed said.

Outstanding education debt surpassed credit-card debt last year for the first time, according to Mark Kantrowitz of Cranberry, publisher of FinAid.org, a student loan website. Recent college graduates carry an average debt load of more than $25,000 each, which can limit their ability to qualify for mortgages even if they're fortunate enough to land a job in a market with an unemployment rate of 9 percent for 25- to 34-year-olds.

Calling it a "student-loan debt bomb," the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys warned Feb. 7 about the effects of rising student debt on recent graduates, parents who co-signed their loans and older Americans who have gone back to school for job training.

"Just as the housing bubble created a mortgage debt overhang that absorbs the income of consumers and renders them unable to engage in consumer spending that sustains the economy, so too are student loans beginning to have the same effect, which will be a drag on the economy for the foreseeable future," John Rao, vice president of the NACBA, said on a conference call.

Economic forecasters predicting strong economic growth in the next several years rest those hopes on a robust recovery in residential construction. In light of that, The Philadelphia Inquirer has some troubling news this morning in a story about a surge in foreclosure filings over the last 12 months.

The rise in foreclosure filings may be the result of lenders moving forward with long planned foreclosures rather than a worsening of economic conditions. More troubling is the rise in 90-day delinquencies, which could be the result of the end of Pennsylvania's Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP). The permanent end to HEMAP also means rising costs for future taxpayers.

• Alan J. Heavens, The Philadelphia Inquirer — Pennsylvania foreclosure filings rose 24 percent from January 2011

The rise in 90-day delinquencies in Pennsylvania during 2011 coincided with the end of the state's highly touted Homeowners Emergency Mortgage Assistance Program (HEMAP), which provided loans to borrowers behind on their mortgages that were repaid either when their financial crises ended or within 24 months.

In 2010, 13,654 homeowners applied for the assistance, and 2,798 were approved, said John Dodds, director of the Philadelphia Unemployment Project.

"All of those who applied were informed of housing counseling, and many probably had their mortgage modified or were otherwise able to save their homes," Dodds said Wednesday.

Funding for HEMAP, which began in 1983, ended in August, as did the Act 91 requirement that defaulting borrowers be sent notices by lenders informing them of the program and available counseling assistance, Dodds said.

For part of 2011, he said, the federal Emergency Homeowner Loan Program, which was modeled on HEMAP, funded these emergency loans. That Housing and Urban Development-funded program, which the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency administered, ended Sept. 30, after approving 3,056 homeowners for emergency help.

"Without these programs, the increase in foreclosures would have been greater, and since Sept. 30 no direct-aid program has been available in Pennsylvania," Dodds said.

Last week, Gov. Corbett included no funding for HEMAP in his proposed 2012-13 budget.

The Inquirer goes on to note that a research brief published by the Reinvestment Fund found that HEMAP kept more than 6,100 homeowners out of foreclosure from 2008 to 2010. Without the program, the report said, "Pennsylvania's foreclosure rate would have been higher and its rank among states several rungs worse."

Again, The Inquirer:

Government estimates show that the costs of foreclosures are shared among lenders (64.6 percent), local government (24.7 percent), homeowners (9.2 percent), and neighbors, whose homes also lose value because of proximity to a bank repossession (1.9 percent).

By reducing Pennsylvania's foreclosure rate by 6,100 homes, the report estimates, $480 million was saved — $170 million of that in Philadelphia and its four suburban counties.

This morning's theme is penny wise and pound foolish. We pass on news stories of state policy choices that are framed as reality-based budgeting but are, in fact, policy choices that will substantially raise future costs for taxpayers. 

First, the Corbett administration is taking steps that will delay school construction and renovation throughout the commonwealth. While there is no evidence that state prevailing wage laws raise construction costs, there is strong evidence that the cheapest time for school districts to build is during periods of high unemployment. By taking steps that will delay school construction, Governor Corbett risks raising the future cost of school construction substantially to the Commonwealth and local school districts.

• Brian Wallace, Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era — Schools have new worry: Corbett budget may cut funds for construction:

School officials are worried that the state is reneging on a promise to fund its share of school construction projects, which could cost school districts — and local taxpayers — millions of dollars in unplanned expenditures in the coming years.

Buried within Gov. Tom Corbett's 2012-13 budget proposal is a provision calling for a one-year moratorium on accepting new applications for state reimbursements for school construction and renovation projects...

But school officials said they should have been told up front, before they committed time and resources to their projects, that there was no guarantee of state funding.

"It is unfair to change the rules in the middle of the game," said Brenda Becker, superintendent of Hempfield School District, which could lose out on as much as $160,000 per year in construction reimbursements if funding is cut.

 

• Sarah Hofius Hall, Times Tribune — School construction could be on hold in NEPA: Area school districts are owed millions in construction reimbursements from the state, superintendents say:

The delay in promised payments comes at the same time Gov. Tom Corbett is proposing a moratorium on reimbursements for any new construction projects, as well as a review of the program.

The moratorium makes an uncertain future for renovation projects superintendents say their schools need, and the stall in funding has Western Wayne waiting for $6 million.

"If we don't receive that money it could bankrupt us," Superintendent Andrew Falonk said.

 

• Editorial, The Mercury — Corbett budget hides cuts in school construction aid

According to Pottstown schools business manager Linda Adams quoting information from the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials, 230 school projects in Pennsylvania are in the pipeline, awaiting funds or approval for funds. This is money local taxpayers will have to make up if the Department of Education decides not to resurrect PlanCon.

The projects that will have to be scrapped are not luxurious new facilities, it should be noted. Pottstown is trying to repair aging elementary schools — a process over which board members and the community have agonized for years.

Also this morning, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has a story on the financial challenges facing school districts over the next year. If the analysis is correct, we are likely to see more layoffs, rising class sizes and the end of specialized course work.

• Kari Andren, Tribune-Review — Analyst: Schools' options scarcer

"My concern is this year, to get that (spending figure) down, there's no more low-hanging fruit. It may require cutting some programs, increasing class sizes," [Norwin School Board President Robert] Perkins said. "That's what scares me, because then you are affecting students."

Marcie Sinagra, member relations coordinator for the Norwin Chamber of Commerce and the mother of two Norwin students, said the roundtable gave her a better sense of the challenges confronting school officials.

"When you hear about cuts, you think there's that much fat," Sinagra said. "There's not necessarily fat everywhere."

[Ron] Cowell, a former state lawmaker from Wilkins Township, said he doesn't envy the task that school administrators face in crafting a budget this spring.

"When the state is cheap, you end up with tougher decisions and usually higher taxes at the local level," he said. "A community has to decide, what do you value? Is it important to give kids those opportunities or do they become casualties? That's a tough decision. That's a tough debate."

What a difference an election year makes. Last year was full of pointless brinksmanship over federal policy issues that will take several decades to solve. Those battles at times looked like they threatened the near term health of the economy. 

The New Year is shaping up to be very different. The New York Times reports this morning that a deal has been struck to extend the payroll tax reduction and extended unemployment benefits through the end of the year. Tentatively, it looks as if efforts to weaken the unemployment insurance system have been blocked. Both the payroll tax reduction and extended unemployment benefits were set to expire at the end of February, and the failure to extend them was on most economists' lists of things that could weaken the economy in 2012.

• Jennifer Steinhauer, The New York Times — Tentative Deal Reached to Preserve Cut in Payroll Tax

The Allentown Morning Call reports that an effort to weaken Pennsylvania's prevailing wage law appears to have stalled. There is little evidence that the presence or absence of prevailing wage laws raise public construction costs. There is, however, abundant evidence that repeal of these laws lowers the wages of construction workers. Read more here.

So why the effort to weaken the law? It is about catering to owners and executives of contractors who pad their pockets by paying workers’ poorly.

• John Micek, Allentown Morning Call — Prevailing Wage Bill Collapses In The House: Republicans Can't Muster Votes

Governor Tom Corbett, meanwhile, is touring the state to promote his 2012-13 budget. 

• Kathy Boccella, The Philadelphia Inquirer — Corbett defends cuts in Pa. higher-education budget

Corbett insisted to reporters during his tour of the high-tech Siemens Medical Solutions plant that his 2012-13 plan for a steep new cuts in state aid to higher education — including 30 percent less money to state-backed schools such as Pennsylvania State and Temple Universities — could be dealt with by reducing campus operating costs, not by raising tuition...

"A lot of people are upset at spending at that level, but that's all the money that we have," he said, reiterating his vow not to raise taxes...

He argued that the state had to be run more like a private business — like Siemens, in fact — to create more jobs and cut costs.

"We can't continue to raise our prices," he said, referring to college costs. "If Siemens kept increasing prices, they would make themselves uncompetitive."

Speaking of "all the money that we have" and running the government like a "private business" that gives away its services for free even when it has no idea whether the benefits of that policy exceed the costs ... Governor Corbett has signed into law an extension of Keystone Opportunity Zones.

• Kent Jackson, Scranton Times-Tribune — Governor approves KOZ extension

Gov. Tom Corbett on Monday signed a bill extending for 13 years the Keystone Opportunity Zones program that exempts businesses from paying many state and local taxes.

Exemptions run for up to 10 years, but the bill lets companies enroll through the end of 2015 so the program now will run through 2025...

While KOZs started in 1999 to promote the use of distressed lands and run-down properties, lawmakers and observers noted instances in the early years of the program where companies enjoyed the tax benefits without investing in properties or creating jobs.

Finally this morning, we have lots of news on the impact of economic austerity around the state. For starters, school districts in Cumberland County are moving to balance their budgets by raising fees, and the Lancaster School District faces a budget shortfall.

• Roger Quigley, The Patriot-News — Mechanicsburg schools enact fees for extracurricular activities
• Ed Komenda, The Patriot-News — Cumberland Valley School District considers making students pay to play sports
• Brian Wallace, Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era — School District of Lancaster faces up to $6M in cuts

The Philadelphia City Controller has issued a grim warning about the Philadelphia School District's financial future.

• Martha Woodall, The Philadelphia Inquirer — Butkovitz report warns of schools’ funding problems:

As expected, City Controller Alan Butkovitz included a warning Tuesday about the Philadelphia School District's finances in a report that could result in higher borrowing costs for the district.

The comprehensive annual report, sent to bond-rating agencies and bondholders, includes a paragraph expressing reservations about the district's financial viability.

The school district, the controller's office said, "has experienced continued operating funds losses, is projecting significant budget shortfalls for fiscal years 2012 and 2013, and is uncertain about its ability to achieve cost savings and obtain additional funding to overcome these budget shortfalls. These conditions raise substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern."

And social service agencies in Northeastern Pennsylvania are bracing for cuts.

• David Singleton, Scranton Times-Tribune — Agencies stewing over budget cuts:

The week that area social services agencies have had to chew on the cuts in Gov. Tom Corbett's proposed 2012-13 budget has not made them any easier to swallow.

Amid still-unanswered questions over how a 20 percent smaller pool of funding within a revamped Human Services Development Fund will be distributed at the local level, critics say the one certainty is children and people with disabilities will be among those bearing the brunt of the cuts.

"It's going to take through the year to find out who really are going to be the victims here," Michael Hanley, executive director of United Neighborhood Centers of Northeastern Pennsylvania, said Tuesday. "Certainly, what we do know is it is going to be the most vulnerable. That is a given."

A week after Governor Tom Corbett rolled out his state budget, many people are still trying to make sense of it.

Perhaps the biggest reshuffling in the Department of Public Welfare budget involves the expansion of the Human Services Development Fund, a flexible funding stream used for a wide variety of human services at the county level. This fund has been repeatedly reduced over the past few year. The new budget combines and cuts funding for other programs into a single Human Services Development Fund Block Grant.

All told, the new block grant is funded at nearly $674 million. That reflects a cut of more than $168 million, or 20%. Portions of a variety of health and human service programs ranging from homeless assistance to mental health services to protecting children from abuse would be impacted (see the table below).

DPW Programs transferred to Human Services Development Fund block grant (in $ thousands)
Portions of programs transferred to HSDF block grant:   Medical Assistance - Outpatient ($14,727) Behavioral Health Services (47,908) Mental Health Services (550,469) ID - Community Base Program (144,974) County Child Welfare (48,533) HSDF (14,956) Homeless Assistance (20,551) Total ($842,118) Human Services Development Fund Block Grant Funding $673,695 Net Funding Reduction ($168,423) Net Reduction Percent -20% Compiled by the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center

NPR this morning broadcast a WPSU story about the rise in homelessness in Tioga County. The story provides a nice reminder that increased economic activity is often associated with rising demands on the social safety net.

• NPR - Pa.'s Gas Boom Worsens Low-Cost Housing Shortage

In case you missed it on Monday, The Philadelphia Inquirer explored the impact of cuts in state funding for higher education.

• Jeff Gammage and Susan Snyder, The Philadelphia Inquirer — Burden of college costs falling more and more on students:

In an interview, Tim Eller, spokesman for the state Education Department, was asked whether money for higher education would continue to dwindle or even potentially end.

"I don't want to take that leap just yet," he said. "It all depends on the economy and the revenues coming in to the state treasury. The governor just feels at this time we have to live within our means without asking taxpayers to pay more."

The cuts, however, ensure that some taxpayers — students and their families — will definitely pay more...

In Pennsylvania, particularly, families have a point. The Delta Cost Project found that at Pennsylvania public research colleges, student tuition accounted for 70 percent of the cost of education, compared with 52 percent nationally, and that similar disparities existed at other types of public schools.

The White House unveiled its 2013 Budget proposal Monday. Of note are commitments to new infrastructure spending and support for community colleges.

• Tracie Mauriello, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — White House touts budget as right mix of taxes, cuts:

Transportation spending would rise a total of $476 billion over six years. Gasoline tax revenues will cover more than half of that commitment.

The president seeks to jump-start re-employment by investing $50 billion in infrastructure projects, continuing to allow tax write-offs for new business investments, investing $30 billion in school modernization projects, providing $30 billion for communities to hire teachers and first-responders and offering tax cuts for businesses that increase their payrolls.

• Jim Kuhnhenn and Kimberly Hefling, The Associated Press — Obama promotes job training at community college:

President Barack Obama called on Congress Monday to create an $8 billion fund to train community college students for high-growth industries, part of his broader pitch to make higher education more affordable for all Americans...

The White House says the "Community College to Career Fund" would train 2 million workers in sectors like health care, transportation and advanced manufacturing.

A key component of the community college plan would institute "pay for performance" in job training, meaning there would be financial incentives to ensure that trainees find permanent jobs — particularly for programs that place individuals facing the greatest hurdles getting work. It also would promote training of entrepreneurs, provide grants for state and local government to recruit companies, and support paid internships for low-income community college students.

This week, we blogged about the Governor's new budget proposal, the passage of a Marcellus Shale package, private-sector job growth, and more.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• Governor Corbett released his 2012-13 state budget this week. Sharon Ward shared her op-ed on the Governor's budget proposal, and Chris Lilienthal highlighted key points from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center's analysis of the budget.
• On the Marcellus Shale, Michael Wood blogged about the Legislature's passage of a shale package, including a drilling fee that has one of the lowest rates in the nation.
• On jobs and the economy, Mark Price compared claims linking private-sector job growth to 2011 state tax and spending policy with a rooster taking credit for the sunrise.
• And in the Morning Must Reads this week, Mark Price shared news reports on how charter schools are putting a drain on school district budgets, what to expect on Budget Day, movement on state legislation that would enable 17,000 Pennsylvania workers to qualify for federally-funded unemployment insurance, and efforts in Washington to weaken extended unemployment benefits.

More blog posts next week. Keep us bookmarked and join the conversation!

Lost amidst our work this week on Governor Corbett's 2012-13 budget was the state Legislature's passage of a Marcellus Shale package that will give Pennsylvania one of the lowest drilling tax or fee rates in the nation. The bill is now awaiting the Governor's signatures.

As The New York Times wrote this week:

Critics, among them some municipalities and environmental groups, said the bill was a capitulation to the energy industry and would all but eliminate their ability to decide where gas development could happen. The measure would limit it in densely populated urban areas but not in suburban spaces, critics said. They also said the environmental and safety standards, like the requirement that wells be at least 500 feet from any house, were weak.

The Times also cited our estimates that "at the current price of natural gas, the fee would amount to an effective tax rate of 2.6 percent, far less than the 5.4 percent in Texas."

The fee sets a 15-year rate schedule for Marcellus wells that rises and falls based on the price of natural gas and inflation. The Associated Press made the point, again citing our work, that this is much lower than drillers pay in other states:

At the current price of gas, the 15-year fee total would be $240,000 per well, not counting inflation, according to a summary distributed to House Democrats. The maximum per-well fee a company would pay is $355,000, if gas stays above $6, while the minimum would be $190,000, if gas stays below $2.25, again not including inflation

But the fee at any price would be well below the average lifetime per-well tax paid in other natural gas states, including $993,700 in West Virginia, $878,500 in Texas and $555,700 in Arkansas, according to the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center ...

As far as distribution of the revenue, The Philadelphia Inquirer explains:

The bill sends 60 percent of proceeds to localities directly affected by drilling, to cover such items as road repair — drillers' mammoth trucks have wreaked havoc on upstate roads — and increased public-safety costs.

The other 40 percent goes to statewide projects, many of them environmental, including repairs to greenways and recreational trails, protection of open space, and other beautification projects.

Bottom line: Pennsylvania will have a Marcellus Shale fee, but it will be a fraction of what drillers pay in most other energy-rich states.

Project Runway fans (don't judge) know that this week is Fashion Week in New York. So in a nod to our fashion forward readers comes a story about an effort to provide more workplace protections for fashion models.

• Leanne Italie, The Associated Press — Fashion models organize to fend off abuses:

Models are more than just pretty faces. They're often overworked, underfed and underage independent contractors with little say when things go bad behind the scenes. Many are just teenagers far from home, in some cases earning as much in a day as their poor families back in Russia and Eastern Europe do in a month. As a result, many fear speaking out about sexual harassment, unscrupulous booking agencies, demands to alter their bodies, lack of backstage privacy and punishing stretches with little sleep.

"Modeling is precarious freelance labor," said model Sara Ziff, who was discovered at 14 walking home from her New York City school. "We have very little job security. It's also a winner-takes-all market. There's only one Gisele. Basically, it's a labor force of children who are working in a very grown-up business."

Dorian Warren at NewDeal 2.0 has more on the effort to provide workplace protections for models.

You really must read all of Simon Johnson's post this morning on efforts in Washington to weaken extended unemployment benefits.

• Simon Johnson, New York Times: Economix — Mean-Spirited, Bad Economics:

The principle behind unemployment insurance is simple. Since the 1930s, employers have paid insurance premiums (in the form of payroll taxes, levied on wages) to the government. If people are laid off through no fault of their own, they can claim this insurance — much the way you file a claim on your homeowner’s or renter’s policy if your home burns down...

The original legislative intent, reaffirmed over the years, is clear: Help people to help themselves in the face of shocks beyond their control.

But the severity and depth of our current recession raise an issue that we have literally not had to confront since the 1930s. What should we do when people run out of standard unemployment benefits — much of which are provided at the state level — but still cannot find a job?

In negotiations currently under way, House Republicans propose to cut back drastically on these benefits, asserting that this will push people back to work and speed the recovery. Does this make sense, or is it bad economics, as well as being mean-spirited?...

The jobs crisis was caused by recklessness in the financial sector, made possible by irresponsible deregulation (including a period when Republicans controlled Congress and the White House) and resulting in enormous unconditional bailout protection for the bankers at the heart of the disaster (under both President George W. Bush and President Obama).

Let’s be generous for a moment and simply state that mistakes were made — on an enormous, macroeconomic scale with gut-wrenching consequences for families around the country. Why would anyone now seek to punish these people when they seek work but cannot get it?

Since Simon brought up punishing the 99% for the sins of the 1%, let's turn our attention to the state budget. My colleagues at the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center have released their full analysis of Gov. Corbett's proposed budget. The Philadelphia Inquirer this morning focuses in on the budget cuts targeting nursing homes. 

• Harold Brubaker, The Philadelphia Inquirer — Pa. nursing homes brace for another round of state cuts:

Pennsylvania nursing-home operators, already hit hard by last year's cuts in federal and state funding, face another revenue loss in Gov. Corbett's proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. The budget proposal, released Tuesday, calls for a 4 percent cut in the Medicaid reimbursement rate for nursing homes. The total revenue loss for nursing homes is projected by the Pennsylvania Health Care Association to be $46.5 million...

"The issue isn't: Can you cut costs? Everybody can cut costs. The issue is: Can you cut costs and provide quality care?" Kleinberg said. Cutting aid to elderly poor who rely on Medicaid is a relatively "easy thing to do," she said. "Their need is so great, but their voice is so small."

Governor Tom Corbett unveiled a 2012-13 state budget Tuesday that abandons middle-class Pennsylvanians and our most vulnerable citizens.

The Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center has a full analysis of the Governor's proposal. Here's the quick version.

With this budget, the Governor continues to turn his back on middle-class families who rely on good schools and affordable college tuition.

Help for the most vulnerable Pennsylvanians is reduced or eliminated. Tens of thousands of families and children have already seen health and other services terminated. This approach is not about finding efficiencies or cutting waste but rather cutting off help to people who have been hit hardest by the recession.

And while there is a call for greater accountability for every dollar in spending, businesses are let off the hook based on claims that they will create jobs in exchange for tax cuts that now total more than $1 billion.

This is not the path to a stronger economy or a better Pennsylvania.

We'll have more to say in the weeks ahead. For now, you can learn more by reading our analysis.

Although the economy is recovering, it is important to remember that unemployment remains high and that means many households are struggling to make ends meet. WITF this morning reports on non-food aid from a Central Pennsylvania charity.

• Craig Layne, WITF — MoneyWorks: Bountiful Blessings sees spike in need for non-food aid

NPR's Morning Edition had a very good story on the national controversy surrounding food assistance. 

Meanwhile, the Allentown Morning Call reports that a bill required to enable 17,000 Pennsylvania workers to qualify for federally-funded unemployment insurance has cleared an important hurdle.

• John Micek, Allentown Morning Call — Unemployment Extension Set For Final House Vote Wednesday:

The state House has advanced Legislation that would restart the flow of extended unemployment benefits for 17,000 jobless Pennsylvanians. A final vote, which would send it to Gov. Tom Corbett's desk, is expected Wednesday ...

... the bill was quickly moved to third, and final consideration, with Speaker Sam Smith's announcement that all amendments to the bill had been pulled. ...

Some House Republicans, with the backing of business leaders, had sought to tie approval of the bill to shoring up the long-term solvency of a system that owes $3 billion to Washington — courtesy of historic levels of unemployment.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on hard ball politics aimed at boosting support for a weak Marcellus Shale drilling fee.

• Angela Couloumbis, Philadelphia Inquirer — Democrat on shale-fee approval: ‘Hardball politics’:

Democrats are calling it hardball. Republicans say it was a fair negotiation.

The dispute centers on the state GOP-controlled Senate's 31-19 approval Tuesday morning of a long-debated "local impact fee" on extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale. The House is scheduled to vote on the same 174-page bill Wednesday and send it to Gov. Corbett if it passes.

Vincent Hughes, ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said that the night before the morning vote, he and other Democrats were warned that if they didn't deliver some support for it, Philadelphia would get cut out of sharing in the fee's proceeds.

Governor Tom Corbett delivered his 2012-13 budget address to a joint session of the state Legislature today. We are still working on our budget analysis at the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. Check our web site later Tuesday evening.

In the meantime, check out our op-ed below on the Governor's budget originally published in the Allentown Morning Call.

Gov. Corbett's budget moves state in wrong direction
By Sharon Ward

Too often in this economy we dwell on the bad news, but Pennsylvania has good news to tell, as well.

Our citizens enjoy a level of personal income that is higher than citizens in most states, and we have maintained lower unemployment rates throughout the recession. We have higher rates of health care coverage than many states. And when it comes to spending and taxes, our state experience is one of restraint.

Much of our success is because of Pennsylvania's long-term commitment over the last decade to preparing our young people for the changing economy, spurring private investment in cities and towns and becoming a national leader in clean energy. We have done so, while not forgetting our grandparents, our children, and those who are most vulnerable.

Gov. Tom Corbett's policies are moving in the opposite direction.

Last year the governor declared war on Pennsylvania colleges and universities, and the new budget continues that battle with additional cuts. Silicon Valley in California and the Research Triangle in North Carolina are centers of innovation spun from public universities. The new Pennsylvania budget will cut off that innovation while driving up college tuition when many families can least afford it.

In his first year, Gov. Corbett made deep cuts to public schools that hit the poorest school districts the hardest. The results are felt across the commonwealth.

Seven out of 10 schools statewide have increased class sizes. Teachers in the Chester Upland schools in southeastern Pennsylvania are working without pay. Students in Allentown are spending time in study hall when they should be taking advanced math classes that could help prepare them for careers in technology or engineering.

The governor took pains to shift blame for school funding cuts to the loss of federal recovery act dollars. Yet the governor fully restored lost federal funds from the corrections budget. That was his choice — prisons over schools. The budget is silent on aid to school districts that are in distress because of state funding cuts. Ignoring this problem will only allow it to fester.

The Corbett administration has chosen to make savings by reducing or eliminating health care for children and adults. Last year, 40,000 working Pennsylvanians lost health coverage, and last fall, 88,000 fewer children received health care coverage. This is not cutting waste; it is taking health care from those who need it.

The budget now proposes to eliminate assistance for low-income adults who are sick. This will affect 67,000 Pennsylvanians, including about 1,600 in Lehigh and Northampton counties. With the economy starting to show signs of improvement, this is no time to be pulling the rug out from under seniors, children and families hit hard by the recession.

As Gov. Corbett said in his budget address, we have to make choices in a tough economy. The governor, unfortunately, has made choices that reduce investment in higher education and our schools, especially those that serve the poorest kids. He has made a choice not to provide health care for needy children.

The governor claims Pennsylvania is open for business and wants to continue a billion dollars in tax breaks to big profitable corporations that haven't created a billion dollars worth of jobs. He points out that state funds kept a General Electric plant from closing in Erie. In 2010, GE had $5.1 billion in U.S. profits but paid zero dollars in federal taxes.

Why are we giving GE money and cutting children's health care? The governor continues to turn a blind eye to companies that dodge state taxes, a luxury we can no longer afford and one that few states tolerate any more.

Have these tax cuts created jobs? Not at all. In fact, the state's economy created fewer jobs last year than in 2010. About 13,000 teachers and school support staff lost their jobs thanks to cuts resulting from these expensive tax breaks.

There is a better way. We need to take bold steps to rebuild the economy — not continue Gov. Corbett's tactics of cutting taxes for businesses that don't produce jobs. We need to take a balanced approach that looks for efficiency while also looking for opportunities to raise revenue.

The governor's budget does take steps to limit a sales tax subsidy for big retailers and to step up enforcement of tax laws. Pennsylvania should go further, closing corporate tax loopholes and putting an end to tax breaks for profitable corporations that have failed to boost our economy. Policymakers missed a great opportunity to enact a Marcellus Shale drilling fee that pays for drilling-related costs and contributes to economic growth throughout the commonwealth.

We have new opportunities in 2012 to put Pennsylvania on a better course to economic recovery and continue the good news of recent decades. But it's up to our elected leaders to seize this opportunity. Our state's economy and well-being depend on it.

Sharon Ward is director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center in Harrisburg.

Update: The Pennsylvania Senate approved the shale fee bill Tuesday by a vote of 31-19. The House followed suit Wednesday, approving it by a narrow vote of 101-90.

Will Michael Nutter be the deciding vote on a bad Marcellus Shale bill?

In typical fashion, the Pennsylvania Legislature is ramming through a shale bill, including a natural gas drilling fee, at the very last minute that is worse than anything we have seen so far.

Rumors are that the Mayor is pressuring Philadelphia Senators to take the deal, which is bad for all Pennsylvanians and not so hot for Philly.

There has been tremendous pressure on Southeastern Senators to hold out for a tax that is more than a pittance, and to restore to local governments the constitutional right to protect their communities from the excesses of drillers gone wild.

The Senate Democratic leadership team of Jay Costa and Vince Hughes have done a fabulous job pushing for strong environmental protection against a legion of gas lobbyists, while the Governor's inclination is to give the drillers the keys to the state and walk away. Philadelphia Senators Vince Hughes and Tony Williams are the most likely to take the bait.

We need a round two on the shale bill. Our Senators, and the Mayor, should hold out for a better deal.

The Philadelphia Inquirer this morning previews big cuts to state support for higher education in today's budget proposal from Governor Corbett. Last year's budget hit poor k-12 school districts hard. This year's cuts to higher education, as the Inquirer story illustrates, are likely to result in rising tuition, which will only make it harder for low-income students to gain access to one of the most important institutions we have for reducing inequality. 

• Susan Snyder and Amy Worden, Philadelphia Inquirer — Corbett to propose 20% to 30% funding cuts for Pa. state universities:

Pennsylvania's state universities would take another big funding cut under Gov. Corbett's 2012-13 budget proposal to be released Tuesday morning, according to sources familiar with the plan.

The 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, including West Chester and Cheyney, would see their state funding cut 20 percent under Corbett's proposed budget as of Monday, sources confirmed.

The four state-related universities — Temple, Penn State, Lincoln, and the University of Pittsburgh — would be cut 30 percent, sources said.

The proposed cuts follow a substantial decrease in funding to the state universities in the current year that led to tuition increases at all 18 schools, as well as a recently announced midyear, 5 percent retraction of funding...

Robert R. Jennings, president of Lincoln University, said that another cut would be "completely devastating" to the historically black institution.

Lincoln raised tuition 7.5 percent after a 19 percent funding reduction last year...

At Lincoln, newly appointed president Jennings said a 30 percent cut in funding would mean layoffs and another tuition increase. In-state students pay about $18,000 and out-of-state students about $23,000.

He said he hoped the state considers Lincoln apart from the other state-related schools, which have larger alumni bases and networks that could help them cover a large budget cut. Many Lincoln students are first-generation college students from single-parent homes, he noted.

My colleagues at the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center will be working hard over the next few days to examine today's budget proposal. 

The legislature is also moving forward on a natural gas drilling fee. As always, the devil is in the details.

• Marc Levy, Associated Press — Pa. GOP: Let's vote on gas drilling this week:

The 15-year impact fee would rise and fall with the price of natural gas and inflation. Currently, the price of natural gas is about $2.30 per million British thermal units — a measurement used at major pipeline hubs. If the price is between $3 and $5, the total per-well fee would be $310,000 over 15 years, not counting inflation, according to a summary distributed to senators.

At the current price of gas, the 15-year fee total would be $240,000 per well, not counting inflation, according to a summary distributed to House Democrats. The maximum per-well fee a company would pay is $355,000, if gas stays above $6, while the minimum would be $190,000, if gas stays below $2.25, again not including inflation.

But the fee at any price would be well below the average lifetime per-well tax paid in other natural gas states, including $993,700 in West Virginia, $878,500 in Texas and $555,700 in Arkansas, according to the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center...

Meanwhile, local school districts are reducing the quality of services they provide and transit agencies are still headed for big cuts in service.

• Ed Komenda, Patriot-News — Cumberland Valley School District board told tough decisions await on budget

• Len Barcousky, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette — Transit supporters continue push for more state aid

Governor Tom Corbett will release his second budget Tuesday, and if history is any indication, we can expect more of the same — more cuts to education and health services and more silence on corporate tax loopholes.

The Governor will deliver his state budget address to a joint session of the state Legislature at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday. You can watch it live on PCN or follow the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center on Twitter as we live-tweet the speech.

We will have budget spreadsheets at the PBPC web site by midday Tuesday, followed by a preliminary analysis of the budget for most departments that evening.

And on Wednesday, we're hosting a 1 p.m. conference call on the budget. It's open to anyone who wants to learn more about the Governor's proposal, so join us if you're free.

We'll be back here tomorrow with more on Governor Corbett's budget.

Stories this morning out of York and Delaware County suggest charter schools in urban areas are making it harder for public school districts to balance their budgets.

• Dan Hardy, The Philadelphia Inquirer — Chester Upland: State special ed formula drains millions from district
• Megan Lello, WITF-FM — York City schools may run out of funds before the end of the academic year

Paul Krugman explains why one relatively good jobs report does not mean we are getting any nearer to full employment anytime soon.

• Paul Krugman, The New York Times — Things Are Not O.K.:

And we should never forget that the persistence of high unemployment inflicts enormous, continuing damage on our economy and our society, even if the unemployment rate is gradually declining. Bear in mind, in particular, the fact that long-term unemployment — the percentage of workers who have been out of work for six months or more — remains at levels not seen since the Great Depression. And each month that this goes on means more Americans permanently alienated from the work force, more families exhausting their savings, and, not least, more of our fellow citizens losing hope.

For a complete run down of the job numbers released on Friday, here are links to analysis by some of the best labor economists around:

• Heidi Shierholz, EPI — U.S. labor market starts 2012 with solid positive signs but fewer jobs than it had 11 years ago

The jobs deficit left from losses in 2008–2009 remains in excess of 11 million jobs (when you take into account both the 5.6 million fewer jobs we have now than we did before the recession started, and the fact that we should have added more than five million jobs to keep up with normal growth in the working-age population). To fully fill the gap in three years, by the start of 2015, we would have to add around 440,000 jobs every month between now and then.

• Dean Baker, CEPR — Jobs Byte:

The revisions actually improved the picture more than may be apparent, since a quirky 42,200 rise in courier jobs for December was completely eliminated in the revisions. Instead, the revised data show a 63,000 increase in jobs in professional and technical services for December, instead of the 12,000 previously reported.  This was largely due to more jobs in employment services, which reportedly rose by 21,800 in December and by 33,200 last month.  This is the sort of healthy job growth in this sector that often precedes more permanent hires.

• Christian E. Weller, Marketwatch — Optimistic jobs report masks persistent weaknesses:

Local government jobs for teachers, firefighter, and police officers, among others, fell by 14,000 jobs in December 2011 for a total decline of 181,000 jobs in 2011. State government jobs were flat in December 2011, after having fallen by 63,000 jobs in the prior 11 months.