Transcript:

Hello, this is Assemblymember Bill Monning.

As Californians celebrate the contributions of workers this Labor Day weekend, too many workers continue to be threatened by layoffs, or worse, they can’t find a job in this economy.

This is totally unacceptable for Assembly Democrats and it’s for this reason that our laser beam-like focus is attacking unemployment.

In state budget negotiations, we’re fighting to create jobs and to ensure we can protect hundreds of thousands of Californians who are educating tomorrow’s workforce, running small businesses and protecting our homes and storefronts.

I’m also proud to say that bills we’ve passed this legislative session provide employers with the innovative and urgent support they need to start hiring.

Home building was spurred with a $10,000 tax credit we provided homebuyers.

We also kept homeowners forced to short sell their homes from being penalized by elimination of an unfortunate provision in the state tax code.

That bill also corrected the tax code so we can make sure renewable energy providers aren’t unduly taxed on federal grants that help them create green jobs in California.

The major role green industries are playing in creating jobs here in California is also getting a boost with a sales tax exemption we passed for producers of green technology manufacturing equipment.

On the health care front, we put California first in the national effort to control health care costs for individuals and small businesses.

A bill by Assembly Speaker John Pérez creates the California Health Benefit Exchange, which will provide an organized insurance marketplace where small businesses can decrease health care costs and increase their payrolls.

California will also need a highly-trained healthcare workforce in the coming decades, so we’ve created an innovative new program at California community colleges to help students train for well-paid nursing and allied health jobs.

Other legislation we’ve passed to support our recovery includes a bill that gives a long needed boost to career technical education for our high school students preparing for their careers.

Finally, we’ve passed legislation to create the Office of Economic Development, which will help develop California’s business advantages and market them to attract more companies to our state.

The Economic Development Office will make sure businesses already here are supported with the resources they need and help them put more Californians back to work.

Many of the bills I just described have been a product of bipartisanship between Democrats and Republicans.

Closing the state budget without causing massive layoffs will take that same spirit of cooperation.

I’m confident that we can come to a budget solution and further the work we’ve done this year to finally make jobs the central part of our recovery.

I’m Assemblymember Bill Monning.