Let’s make H-town a city that works for all
As we mark Labor Day with parades and barbecues, we will commemorate workplace rights won by the labor movement — the eight-hour work day, the right to a safe and healthy workplace, and more.
We should also celebrate all who make our city run today. From nurses and teachers to dock workers and construction workers, to working families who get up every day and work hard to build this city.
But we also should recognize that despite our sweat, sacrifice and innovation, too many Houston families are struggling to get by. One in five Houstonians lives below the poverty line, while 1 in 4 African-American and Latino households do. One-half of Houstonians earn less than $15 an hour, making paying rent or affording groceries a struggle, let alone saving for college, a home or retirement. Meanwhile, the richest 7 percent of Houston households earn 20 times more than the bottom 7 percent.
These statistics reveal an economy out of balance. Our regional economy generates a few neighborhoods of enormous wealth. But too many industries and firms have adopted a low-road strategy to economic development; they compete by driving down wages and working conditions.
As inequality has grown, local government largely has failed to use its tools to encourage responsible high-road development. For decades, the city of Houston and Harris County have offered tax subsidies to private-development projects. Content with modest increases in the tax base and promises of job creation, local officials asked little or nothing from firms receiving aid. Over a four-year period, private companies received $800 million in tax breaks from the city of Houston with no commitment to job standards.
As a result, our tax dollars are subsidizing poverty-creating jobs. As recently as June, Harris County Commissioners handed Amazon. com a $1.8 million tax break to build a warehouse near Intercontinental Airport, despite concerns that Amazon pays low wages and a growing number of lawsuits alleging wage and hour law violations.
Local government has an obligation to fight for better opportunities for our communities by guiding industries onto a high-road strategy of economic development. When elected officials review development projects requesting multi-million dollar tax breaks, they should require that jobs pay family-sustaining wages and benefits. Houston’s elected officials can demand that firms hire from neighborhoods with high poverty levels. They can ask firms to utilize union apprenticeship programs to train people who need a second chance, while nurturing a skilled regional workforce.
Under Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston has taken some positive steps. After unions and community groups advocated for meaningful changes in economic development policy over the past eight months, the city in August added sections to subsidy applications for breakdowns of the number of full-time vs. part-time jobs and temporary vs. permanent jobs. Developers will also need to detail specific community benefits the project will provide and a plan to implement them. The city of Houston also considered but ultimately declined to give Amazon a tax break, another sign of progress.
But stronger measures are still needed to alter the economy’s trajectory. One next step would be to amend the city’s 380 agreements, tax abatements and TIRZ projects to require specific community benefits from any developer receiving a subsidy. The city also needs to increase transparency in the economic development process, including providing adequate notice to the public of possible economic development projects.
City government can and must assume a greater role in shaping economic development to create economic opportunity for all Houstonians. Our call to action this Labor Day is to make Houston a city that works for all.