Economic Task Force
May 4th Meeting
Economic Task force meet Monday, May 4 at the home of Daphne Robinson. Present were Estella Moss, Daphne Robinson and Ann Shank.
- We discussed the current economy including employment rates for Evansville area and Indiana
- Evansville area unemployment rate for March, 2009 was 9.1% and has moved up each month from 5.4% in October. As of the end of March, there are 178,600 in the civilian labor force of which 162,400 are employed. 16,200 are unemployed. This information can be found at http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/print.pl/eag/eag.in_evansville_msa.htm
- Indiana area unemployment rate for March, 2009 was 10% and has moved up each month from 6.4% in October. As of the end of March, there are 3,219,400 in the civilian labor force of which 2,896,300 are employed. 323,100 are unemployed. This information can be found at http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/print.pl/eag/eag.in.htm
- We discussed the recent GDP release for first quarter 2009. The treasury department report released the end of April was presented with negatives highlighted in red and “glimmers of hope” highlighted in green, and we also have included the here the First 100 Days Treasury Report.
- We discussed the Fiscal Year 2010 Budget Resolution Conference Report. It passed the Senate by a vote of 53-43 with 3 Senators not voting. The Democratic Senators voting NO were BAYH, Byrd and Nelson (NE). The Senators not voting were Kennedy, Rockefeller and Sessions. Senator Spector (still listed as R) also voted No.
- We discussed the Conference report and decided to include information about the reports estimates regarding tax policy, projected deficits and Public Debt in our report to the group. (I will send the link for the Conference Report in a separate email)
- Estella proposed a possible economic related community outreach program. Concern was raised about the lack of access for those needing public assistance and other forms of state administered assistance. We discussed developing an advocacy program and the process of identifying areas of need. Estella will call State Senators Becker and Deig and State Representative Rieken for their input.
- We discussed direction this committee should take and it was decided we would:
- Monitor the economy reporting further “glimmers of hope”
- Monitor the budget process and report as necessary
- Develop local outreach activity
- Develop economic eduction summaries as requested
- Recruit more members for the economy task force
- Future meeting date was not set
