How to save New Process Gear jobs?
Syracuse Post-Standard
Mike McAndrew
October 13th, 2008
The three candidates running for the 25th Congressional District were asked a series of questions about job creation and retention by The Post-Standard.
Below are excerpts of answers by Republican Dale Sweetland, Democrat Dan Maffei and Green Populist Howie Hawkins to three questions.
New Process Gear, one of the region's larger blue collar employers, has laid off hundreds of workers in recent years. What specific steps, if any, would you take as a congressman to try to prevent additional job losses there?
Sweetland:
"The federal government should provide financial assistance for developing alternative products and the costs for retooling and retraining."
Maffei:
"Both representatives from Magna and the UAW have told me that the plant and the work force could be converted to make large components and parts for hybrids and alternative energy vehicles which are in demand. Such a transition will take some time and additional resources and I would work hard with state, county, and local government and community partners as well as the UAW and plant management to develop and fund such a transition plan."
Hawkins:
"I would push for public investment in building a green economy that could create new opportunities for New Process Gear in new product lines. Salvaging the auto/truck/roads system that relies on oil and carbon emissions is a dead end from the viewpoint of energy security, climate protection, and recovering from the economic crisis we now face."
Have you ever created a private sector job?
Sweetland:
"I spent most of my professional life as a small businessman. Hiring dozens of workers over this time, I operated a business for 25 years that supported many other jobs in our local economy. I also started an insurance agency in the Northeast that began with no revenue or employees and grew to over $6 million annually and employed 9 people.
Maffei:
"The question seems to imply that for a member of Congress effectively to help create jobs, he or she must have hired people in a private sector company. I reject this assertion just as I would reject the assertion that, to be effective at legislating on health care, a member of Congress should have experience as a health care provider or, to be effective at legislating on education, a member of Congress should have experience as a teacher."
Hawkins:
"As the co-owner of a construction workers cooperative and as an independent building contractor in the 1970s and 1980s, I created jobs and hired other building trades people in home, apartment, and retail building construction, energy audits, and solar and wind installations."
What do you think about the job creation ideas and job creation claims that have been advanced by either of your opponents during the campaign?
Sweetland:
My Democratic opponent has said creating jobs and eliminating weeds were his priority but his other positions would do just the opposite. He wants to cut energy costs by creating a new tax on the oil companies. He wants government subsidies for everything from alternative energy, to paying college costs for local graduates, to paying for transportation , new bridges, schools, and new technology. He promises to expand healthcare benefits, eliminate the healthcare uninsured and reduce healthcare costs. And he promises middle class tax cuts to somehow pay for it all. All of those programs would drive up federal spending, and subsequently, taxes.
Maffei:
I do not know of any such specific ideas or claims.
Hawkins:
Both of my opponents put a strong emphasis on tax breaks for business, including Maffei's vague call for reforming the empowerment zone program, which is the what the Clinton administration renamed Jack Kemp's old Republican enterprise zone idea for stimulating economic development in depressed communities. These are the same trickle down approaches that have not worked for the last three decades to create jobs in regions like the 25th district that have been hemorrhaging good-paying manufacturing jobs for three decades.
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