City Council A Session – May 16th – Ready to Work – Chris’ Transcript

(the actual session can be viewed here)

A while back I was in a group discussion when the subject turned to Ready to Work. Most of them were lamenting the program’s rough start and lack of progress toward its stated goals.

Then they turned to me, and I said “it never had a chance to succeed, at least efficiently.”

In a February 2022 piece in the San Antonio Express-News, I laid out the reasons why. I said because it is sponsored by an organization (City of San Antonio) that will never go out of business, and does not have to provide a quality product or service to earn revenue, it lacks basic incentives to do a good job, to be effective.

Since then, eligibility has been expanded to some non-San Antonio residents, and now we want to hand out corporate subsidies and add city staff. Apparently there’s a belief that somehow more government action/support will improve things.

These giveaways are going to “well-resourced” companies, to quote a current member of council. Or, they’re going to smaller companies whose officials can afford to be found in the campaign finance reports of other members of council.

None of them need it. Unlike the public sector, they have every incentive to train their workers. Their existence depends on it.

But I guess you can play the corporate welfare game when, under false pretense, you convince San Antonio taxpayers to cross streams with Alamo Community College District taxpayers, among others.

And imagine the irony of pulling more people from the private sector workforce to administer this public sector program that struggles to put folks in “quality jobs.” CoSA aiming to be an “employer of choice” is not without its unintended consequences.

It was recently reported that roughly $11 million will have to be cut from the city budget so tax rates won’t have to be raised, like property taxes overall have been the last several years. Ready to Work would be an ideal place to start.