Ideas in Development

I know that I have probably left out some important ones.  Plus, there are new ones being designed as I write.  If you have any strongly-felt nominations to my list, let me know.

Using public powers

• Prudently redirect public pension investments
• Retrofit public buildings
• Use procurement to foster product and market development
• Use a Capital Budget to guide investments in new public works and in their maintenance.
• Implement smart growth measures using tax, regulatory, spending, etc. powers
• Enact congestion charges
• Conduct a “budgeting for results” review of a state Department of Commerce

Creating an appropriate tax and regulatory environment

• Tax modernization and base broadening
• Encourage pollution prevention approaches instead of one-size-fits-all compliance regulation
• Support green industry development, greater use of renewable energy, and increased energy efficiency in residential and commercial buildings, and so forth
• Encourage “The Nature Conservancy style” of environmentally compatible development

Creating jobs and wider prosperity

• Invest in people (K-12 education reform and investment is one illustration).
• Spur innovation, technology transfer and commercialization
• Encourage entrepreneurship
• Deliver manufacturing modernization services
• Pursue cluster-based development strategies
• Address uneven development through targeted development efforts
• Reform business attraction incentives

 Insuring access for disadvantaged to decent employment

• Work with job placement/training  programs
• Provide transitional community jobs
• Experiment with training enterprises
• Promote equal opportunity through the courts

Raising incomes

• Raise, enforce and index the state minimum wage
• Institute livable wage provisions for all state contractors who wish to continue bidding on state contracts
• Enact state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and other progressive tax reforms (small saver’s credit, day care tax credit, etc.)
• Undertake Project Labor Agreements

Building and protecting assets

• Create IDAs  (individual development accounts)
• Pilot children accounts
• Raise asset limits on transfer payments
• Make available voluntary personal retirement accounts
• Undertake predatory lending reforms
• Prevent credit card abuse/exploitation
• Provide financial literacy education
• Support employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs)

Assisting the unemployed

• Modernize unemployment insurance  (UI)
• Assist displaced workers
• Meet basic needs (health care for unemployed, etc.)

Protecting the rights of employed

• Combat “right to work“
• Create collective bargaining rights for public employees
• Improve workers compensation services and benefits without raising cost for employers
• Improve workplace health and safety
• Establish new regulations, etc for nonstandard employees
• Explore new forms of organization for the employed, such as free lancers unions, guilds, workplace safety committees and high performance workplaces