By Aaron Glantz, New America Media

On the eve of President Barack Obama's White House Summit on Jobs,
labor leaders yesterday issued a dire warning: Unless Congress and
Obama create a "bold jobs program," state and local governments could
shed almost a million jobs next year, further worsening our national
unemployment rate.

"The budget crisis that they face is dire," Thea Lee, chief of staff of
the labor federation AFL-CIO, told a conference call with journalists.

"If we don't help state and local governments," she said, they will "cut off vital services to people who are struggling at the worst
possible moment, whether it's community safety, fire fighting, or
health care."

Lee also predicted that they would shed hundreds of thousands of jobs
through layoffs. "We cannot afford to have state and local budget cuts
undermine the recovery before it gets off the ground," she said.

The nation's unemployment rate already stands at 10.2%, its highest rate in 26 years.

Unemployment is even higher for blacks (15.7%), Hispanics (13.1%). The Labor Department says more than one in four teenagers are
unemployed.

Obama's jobs summit today will gather top business leaders, union
officials, politicians, and economists to provide ideas for
jumpstarting the economy and putting people back to work, according to
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Unions and liberal lawmakers hope the president will use his jobs forum
to get the ball rolling on a second stimulus package that builds on the
$787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) he signed in
February.

That Recovery Act contained a $53.6 billion State Fiscal Stabilization
Fund, which the government reports saved 250,000 education jobs across
the country. Other provisions of ARRA helped prevent layoffs of police
officers, firefighters and health care workers.

But that money has all been spent and the financial picture of most
state and local governments remains grim. So unless Congress ponies up
new money, many of those workers whose jobs were saved by the stimulus
will have to be let go.

"They are already furloughing a lot of people and laying people off,
state aid is going away, sales taxes have been hammered, and income tax
in places with high unemployment will continue to decline," said Mark
Muro, policy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program of the
Brookings Institution.

In addition, Muro said property tax revenue will likely continue to
decline as homes and commercial buildings are re-assessed at lower
values.

And, Muro said, local government makes up approximately 11% of all employment in urban areas.

As a result, many Democrats in Congress are pushing the White House to
implement a wide ranging, federally funded jobs program implemented by
local government.

Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) is pushing a $40 billion jobs program, which he says would create "one million, full-time jobs."

"These jobs could focus on communities that critically need them and
put people back to work," he said. "People are needed to paint and
repair schools, community centers, libraries, clean up abandoned and
vacant properties, alleviate the blight that's been caused by the
foreclosure crisis."

"We need people to help expand our emergency food programs to prevent
hunger and promote stability, and of course we need staff at our Head
Start and pre-school programs," he said. "We have all kinds of jobs
that need to be filled and all kinds of people we need to fill them.
But we need to pay those people who can get the economy going again."

Financing a new stimulus would likely run into difficulties on Capital Hill, however.

Robert Borosage, director of the Campaign for America's Future, which
organized the conference call during which Lee and Ellison spoke, noted
the political hurdles. "Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi has pushed hard to get
something out of the House before the holiday break, but the Senate is
locked into this health care debate and it's hard to imagine them
getting anything done before they get freed of that."

And that debate will likely stretch into the new year while job losses mount.

Brookings' Muro is more optimistic. He sees a second stimulus by the
end of the year -- either in the form of direct federal aid to cities to
stave off job losses, or in the form of large amounts of money pumped
into transportation and infrastructure projects that would spark
additional employment. Another possibility, he said, is a large
investment in the Community Development Block Grants program, which
would provide federal dollars to local communities across America.

"The tension is going to be between a White House very concerned about
fiscal issues and an increasing deficit and Democrats in Congress who
are more ready to increase the deficit to respond to the jobs
emergency."

Regardless, Muro said, "most forecasters expect unemployment to
continue with continued job losses for a number of months -- let alone
beginning to make back the millions of jobs that have already been
lost."