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EDITORIAL
Ignoring D.C.'s plight
(Published May 3, 2004)

Something is seriously wrong with the picture of economic prosperity being painted for the Washington metropolitan area: Residents of the nation’s capital are largely being left out.

A front-page story in The Washington Post on April 29 trumpeted a sharp rise in new jobs in the metropolitan area this year, coupled with a 3 percent unemployment rate that was described as "the lowest of any major city."

Yet, what the story failed to mention is significant.

While noting Northern Virginia’s "remarkably low" unemployment rates of 1.7 percent in Arlington County and 2 percent in Fairfax County during March, the Post failed to tell its readers that unemployment in the District of Columbia increased in March to 6.8 percent. That’s eight-tenths of a point higher than the 6 percent national unemployment rate for March.

According to statistics released April 23 by the D.C. Department of Employment Services, the unemployment rate for D.C. residents rose one-tenth of a percent in March, compared to February’s figure. D.C. officials said the unemployment rate in the District remained unchanged from March 2003 to March 2004. At the same time, a total of 5,200 new jobs were created in the District.

What does this mean?

It means that the millions of D.C. tax dollars invested during the past year in job training programs and "economic development" projects resulted in no measurable effect on the percentage of D.C. residents who are gainfully employed.

It means that D.C. government programs and policies aimed at putting the District’s unemployed residents to work are not working – or, at least not well enough or quickly enough.

It means that many of the jobs created with D.C. taxpayers’ money are not going to D.C. residents. That also means that out-of-state residents who are hired into those jobs do not pay income taxes to the D.C. government.

The mystery is why local government leaders don’t appear to be publicly concerned about this state of affairs, especially as the mayor and city council are currently engaged in the budgeting process for the city’s fiscal year that begins on Oct. 1.

No one seems to be looking for real answers to alleviate the burden placed on local taxpayers by the need to support such a high number of unemployed residents. High unemployment translates into costly dependence on taxpayer-provided services for a large proportion of the city’s population. High unemployment often also contributes to health problems, crime and other derelict public behavior – which all, at some level, becomes an additional costly problem for city taxpayers.

According to government statistics, 20,500 D.C. residents were unemployed in March – and that figure only counts people who were actively registered as members of the workforce who were seeking employment. How many more have dropped out?

D.C.’s unemployed residents need to be connected to jobs that will allow them to become productive members of the community. D.C. government policies need to do a much better job of providing that connection.

Copyright 2004, The Common Denominator