The start-and-stop history of governmental funding for job-training
program JobPath is enough to inflict whiplash.
Start: In 1998, the controversial Pima County Interfaith Council
demands the city and county help finance JobPath, and they comply. (See
“Training Maneuvers,” July 8, 1999.)
Stop: The Tucson City Council eliminates funding in 2004.
Start: Following the election of new City Council members, the city
in 2006 resumes paying JobPath $500,000 annually.
Stop: Pima County cuts its 2008 funding by 44 percent. Then, to help
balance its own budget, the city reduces its contribution by 10
percent.
Now the cycle may be reversing again: The recommended budget for the
next fiscal year released recently by new City Manager Mike Letcher
shows full funding for JobPath at $500,000.
“Oh my God!” exclaimed JobPath’s executive director, Herminia
Cubillos, when told the news. “That kind of made my day.”
With a current budget of about $750,000, JobPath is assisting 196
mostly low-income students. They are enrolled in classes at Pima
Community College to become registered nurses, aviation maintenance
workers and trades people in a host of fields.
Cubillos had previously been told the city might reduce its
contribution anywhere from 25 percent, under a proposal floated by
deposed City Manager Mike Hein, to 7 percent. After hearing of the
full-funding possibility, Cubillos said that Letcher is “smart. He
knows employment is what it’s all about right now.”
However, that funding is far from secure. In his budget message to
the City Council, Letcher suggested that the elected officials still
need to make some decisions about the almost $13 million in city
funding provided to outside agencies such as JobPath.
Marie Nemerguth, the city’s acting deputy budget director,
clarifies: “The city manager’s not recommending, per se, the list (of
outside agencies that would be funded in the proposed budget), but that
the council come up with a list.”
The city budget would be balanced, in part, through a series of tax
and fee increases. In addition, many city employees will be required to
take 40 hours of unpaid furlough time during the fiscal year beginning
July 1. This leads to a question: Is it fair to fully fund JobPath
while raising taxes and cutting employee pay?
“The council has to decide where their priorities are,” said former
Mayor George Miller. “One’s not better than the other.”
Miller, who has been a member of the JobPath board of directors
since leaving office a decade ago, said that city employees “have
steady jobs with good perks, so (the furloughs) are a small sacrifice.
They can handle them better than those at the bottom of the economic
ladder.”
Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, one of those responsible for restoring
city assistance to JobPath in 2006, said full funding for JobPath “is
certainly something to discuss, and it’s right to note the many
difficult choices in the budget. Oftentimes in economic downturns,
people take advantage of job training, so this might be an optimal time
to make some available.”
With JobPath’s city funding still uncertain, Cubillos said she’s
“not planning on anything until the ink is dry on a contract.” But she
is definitely planning on celebrating JobPath’s 10th anniversary on May
22.
“We’ve never changed our mission,” Cubillos said. “Our sole purpose
is to recruit and support adults who want to improve their lives
through job training at Pima Community College.”
When it was first established, JobPath joined the county’s One Stop
Career Center as the major job-training programs in town. But by
offering assistance to people who earn more than low-income wages and
providing mentoring services to its clients, JobPath distinguished
itself.
JobPath also set itself apart by initially requiring its clients to
pay back—either monetarily or through community
service—part of their stipend. But the agency eliminated that
requirement a couple of years ago.
“It became a bureaucratic nightmare,” Cubillos explained.
Statistics compiled by JobPath show the average client was earning
around $15,000 a year before they began their job training. Once they
completed the PCC coursework and found new employment, their salaries
more than doubled.
“Based on the average increase in wages compared to the program
costs,” an economic impact analysis prepared in 2008 for JobPath
stated, “they have provided a good return on investment over the past
three years.”
The report also shows that public-assistance payments were reduced
in Pima County because of the program. This was primarily due to
JobPath graduates no longer being enrolled in AHCCCS, the state’s
low-income medical plan, or receiving governmental assistance for child
care.
Before the city manager’s recommended budget was released, Cubillos
said that the agency could possibly be shut down if funding was cut
further. Now, things appear to have changed.
JobPath will have 96 graduates this year, with another 100 students
continuing their education. After coordinating with the One Stop Career
Center regarding the use of federal stimulus funds, they may be able to
add 100 more in August.
Assuming the city’s full contribution comes through, the program may
be able to expand: “It depends upon funding from the county, but we may
be able to go up another 175 students,” Cubillos said.
In other words, the next budgetary signal for JobPath might be
“start.”
This article appears in Apr 30 – May 6, 2009.
