Northam’s Plan to Incentivize People to Work: Spend More of Your Money!
According to a National Federation of Independent Businesses’ (NFIB) report, Virginia mirrors national trends showing that 48% of small business owners reported unfilled openings in May, and that 61% of businesses have attempted to fill those vacant positions. Virginia companies are facing a hiring shortage, despite their efforts to encourage new employees with increased wages, benefits packages, and other employment perks.
Ever since the COVID crisis came to Virginia in March 2020, Governor Northam has had opportunities to address the ongoing employment concerns during a Special Session in 2020 which lasted 84 days (from August through November), as well as the regular 2021 Session lasting 46 days, but his focus seemed to be on anything but the employment crisis in Virginia. Sure he reinstated the work search requirement for unemployment, but so have a number of other states, including Maryland. Instead, his top priorities have been legalizing and commercializing marijuana, expanding abortion coverage, and giving the state the ability to dictate who parents can hire to babysit their kids.
But now Governor Ralph Northam is ready to take action!
His plan to address the applicant shortage is to use his executive powers again to spend more money and establish a $3 million matching grant pilot program called “Return to Earn.” The Governor is pitching this as a grant of up to $1,000 to support an employee’s transition back into the workforce, provided the business has less than 100 employees and pays their workers at least $15 per hour for employees hired after May 31. Of course, the hook is it’s a “matching grant,” which means qualifying businesses still have to put up the first half (up to $500), except for childcare businesses which could receive $500 without the match requirement.
Not only will small businesses struggle to pay their employees $15 per hour, but they will also have to fork out an extra $500 on top of that in order to compete for employees, which could limit the number of businesses that would consider availing themselves of this program. And with Virginia still providing the $300 per week supplemental unemployment payments, this proposal will be in direct competition with the federal government, which would still disincentive people to return to the workforce.
This executive action is indicative of a governor more preoccupied with growing the executive branch and expanding its powers over the citizens. During the 2021 Regular session, Governor Northam signed legislation into law that establishes a Virginia LGBTQ+ advisory group, which gives the Governor advice on “the economic, professional, cultural, educational, and governmental links between the Commonwealth and the LGBTQ+ community in Virginia.” He also approved the creation of a brand new secretariat position – the Secretary of Labor. While this could be viewed as an organizational decision, creating a new office within the Governor’s cabinet will not alone address the labor shortages that many Virginia small businesses are experiencing.
Throughout this COVID pandemic Northam has consistently acted unilaterally in ruling by Executive Order, many of them having to do with state-mandated lockdowns and unconstitutionally targeting places of worship, while at the same time batting away any efforts by members of the General Assembly to apply limits to emergency executive powers. (Of course, Governor Northam was never going to sign into law a bill that starves his power-hungry appetite.)
Virginians deserve a government that works for them, and elected officials that set aside their personal ambitions during a challenging time to work together to create public policies that lift all people – not just those that agree with the liberal agenda.
