HARRISBURG, Pa. – The U.S. Senate is now considering bills that could overturn rules clarifying how states and cities can help millions of private-sector workers save for retirement.
More than half of American workers don't have access to a company pension plan at work. So, the Obama administration issued regulations clearing the way for states and large cities to create payroll deduction plans for those workers' retirement savings.
But, in a recent party-line vote, the House passed legislation that blocks those rules.
Stephen Herzenberg, executive director of the Keystone Research Center, says overturning the regulations could be devastating.
"What it would do is make it harder for millions of Americans, and about three million Pennsylvanians, to save for retirement," he said.
Supporters of the rollback point out that people can save money on their own, and voice concerns that state- or city-sponsored pension plans might compete with others, including traditional private-sector workplace plans.
But Herzenberg calls that argument a case of "smoke and mirrors."
"Wall Street doesn't want states and big cities to negotiate limits on the fees they can charge, to be educating consumers on what's a good retirement savings option and what's a bad one," he explained.
Five states, including California, have created pension plans for workers that don't have them, and several other states and large cities are considering them, including Philadelphia and Harrisburg.
Herzenberg notes that Republican state Sen. Pat Brown and Sen. Art Heywood, a Democrat, are looking for cosponsors for a bill to create such a plan for the entire state.
"They lay out why this makes total sense, that it doesn't compete with the private sector because these people aren't saving as it stands," he added. "So, there is bipartisan interest in this."
Herzenberg says the Senate could take up the bill that would roll back the Obama administration regulations as early as this Friday.
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As Michigan prepares for tomorrow's big election, skilled-trade and union workers are calling for continued federal support to keep their industry strong.
Many are hoping the next administration will prioritize funding similar to the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which fueled repairs and upgrades to roads, water systems and the power grid.
Felicia Wiseman, recruitment officer for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 58 in Detroit, said the Infrastructure Act and the CHIPS and Science Act also created pathways for new talent through apprenticeship programs.
"The work that's coming down the pipeline, we need people to do it," Wiseman observed. "It's making them open up doors, so that people can get into these apprenticeships. There's a lot of programs that are out there kind of prepping people, because they don't know about how to get into the different skilled trades."
Michigan will receive more than $11 billion from the Infrastructure Act by 2026, funding major skilled-trade jobs and projects in transportation, water and energy.
As a single mother, who once faced the struggle of balancing work and affording child care when she first entered the trades, Wiseman also praised the child care requirements within the CHIPS and Science Act.
"Just for the industry to realize that, and they're kind of doing it now because we have so many single fathers now," Wiseman explained. "They're, like, 'Hey, this is a problem.' And we're, like, 'Duh! No kidding.'"
When asked what top priority the next administration should bring to the skilled trades, Wiseman was clear.
"I want to see labor and people in labor - not only union, all people in labor - continue to be respected and you know paid what they're worth for the jobs that they're doing," Wiseman emphasized.
According to the Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity, Michigan expects about 45,000 new skilled-trade job openings each year through 2028.
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A package of New York bills could boost public services and create a fairer tax system.
The Invest in Our New York Act aims to get corporations and the state's ultrawealthy to pay their fair share of taxes. The legislation would put the money into essential programs like affordable housing, child care and education. One of the bills establishes a capital-gains tax.
Isaiah Fenichel, Hudson Valley lead organizer for the group Citizen Action of New York, said another would create a more equitable tax structure.
"It creates new tax brackets where it is kind of spacing out the percentages and what folks are paying on the way up," Fenichel explained. "That is to generate more of the wealth because as it stands if you make between $250,000 and a million dollars, you're taxed at the same rate, regardless of where you fall on that spectrum."
Despite wide support for the bills, the biggest opposition surrounds the question of 'what if this drives wealthy people away from New York?' However, studies show it's the working-class population leaving the state. The Fiscal Policy Institute finds, on average, savings from lower housing costs in other states are 15 times greater than savings from taxes for former New Yorkers.
The package of legislation also includes spending priorities for housing, climate change and other areas. Fenichel noted the money from the legislation would help pay for programs like housing access vouchers and foundation aid. As a new parent, he said child care accessibility is another area in need of better funding.
"One of the things we're advocating for is a billion and a half dollars to raise wages for New York's child care workforce," Fenichel outlined. "We can bring more folks in, have more child care workers, that way there can be more facilities open, and people can take more folks into the classroom."
Census data show New York State has a high rate of employment for child care workers but their average salary is close to $38,000 a year. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Living Wage Calculator finds the living wage for a single person is more than $55,000 a year.
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Pennsylvania's landscape is undergoing a transformation, paid for with billions in federal funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The state is expected to receive more than $13 billion over five years for highways and bridges.
David Gunshore described himself as a "semiretired inspector," working on a bridge project in Clarks Summit and said it's being paid for 100% by federal dollars. Gunshore said the crumbling bridge was built in 1959 and last rehabbed in 1983, and stands 65 feet above railroad tracks.
"Like a lot of the concrete, it rots out and it falls, that means it deteriorates and breaks out," Gunshore explained. "So you cut all that out, and you re-patch it with new stuff, so that the rot can't go any deeper into the pillars. We're redoing the bridge deck and the piers, the pillars, the columns that hold it up."
Gunshore estimated the bridge project will be finished by next fall. As of March of this year, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law had allocated more than $15 billion to Pennsylvania, for more than 450 projects. Of those funds, $6.7 billion are for highways and just over $1 billion for bridges.
Gunshore pointed out in his years on the job, the construction industry seems to have struggled more under Republican administrations but thrived during President Bill Clinton's tenure and with the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act during Barack Obama's presidency to fix roads and transit lines. Gunshore thinks it has been money well spent, noting the Biden-Harris administration's support for construction, manufacturing and apprenticeship programs.
"Big government spends the money but you're building roads, people get jobs, and money goes into the economy, and you're still ending up with new roads and new infrastructure," Gunshore emphasized. "I think that's one of the best investments going, that and health care, because the better the health care, the less people are going to get sick."
Gunshore noted the last major federal project he worked on, the Twin Bridges project, is underway to replace two mainline bridges in Lackawanna County. He added there is a lot of work to be done and jobs are available for the project.
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