Showing posts with label Proposition 39. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Proposition 39. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

No One Showed Up for California's Green Jobs Rush ...

No One Showed Up for California's Green Jobs Rush ...
In 2012, California voters were peppered with grandiose promises, such that they could not resist approving Proposition 39. The measure, created and backed by wealthy environmentalist Tom Steyer, sought to raise taxes on corporations and use the money to fund green energy projects in schools.
He promised it would create 11,000 new jobs each year. What could go wrong?
....

Naturally, it did not work at all. On Monday, the Associated Press reported that the program has "created" just 1,700 jobs in three years — just under 600 jobs per year or roughly five percent of what was promised, at the cost of $175,000 per job. 

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

California Voted to Raise Taxes on Corporations to Create ‘Green Jobs.’ Here’s How That’s Working Out Three Years Later

In this photo taken on Monday, Aug. 6, 2012, workers install a motored solar panel at a construction site of a high concentration photovoltaic (HCPV) power plant in Hami city in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Photo: AP)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Three years after California voters passed a ballot measure to raise taxes on corporations and generate clean energy jobs by funding energy-efficiency projects in schools, barely one-tenth of the promised jobs have been created, and the state has no comprehensive list to show how much work has been done or how much energy has been saved.
Money is trickling in at a slower-than-anticipated rate, and more than half of the $297 million given to schools so far has gone to consultants and energy auditors. The board created to oversee the project and submit annual progress reports to the Legislature has never met, according to a review by The Associated Press.
Voters in 2012 approved the Clean Energy Jobs Act by a large margin, closing a tax loophole for multistate corporations. The Legislature decided to send half the money to fund clean energy projects in schools, promising to generate more than 11,000 jobs each year.
Instead, only 1,700 jobs have been created in three years, raising concerns about whether the money is accomplishing what voters were promised.
“Accountability boards that are rubber stamps are fairly common, but accountability boards that don’t meet at all are a big problem,” said Douglas Johnson, a state government expert at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California.
The State Energy Commission, which oversees Proposition 39 spending, could not provide any data about completed projects or calculate energy savings because schools are not required to report the results for up to 15 months after completion, spokeswoman Amber Beck said.

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