FEDERAL CUTS MAY AXE JOBS PROGRAM

Proposed federal budget cuts could eliminate a summer jobs program for low-income youth and slice away at the Southeast Missouri Private Industry Council.

The council, based in Cape Girardeau, is anything but private. It is funded almost entirely with federal money. The rest comes from the state.

The council and its 11-member staff administer federal job training programs in 13 counties of Southeast Missouri, ranging from Ste. Genevieve and St. Francois counties to the north to Pemiscot and Dunklin counties to the south.

The council operates on a $4 to $5 million annual budget. It is basically a paperwork agency, subcontracting the job programs to vocational-technical schools and agencies like the East Missouri Action Agency and the Visiting Nurse Association of Southeast Missouri.

"We do a lot of work with paper, write a lot of contracts," council director Ron Swift said, adding that the council would have a hard time making up the loss of federal funds.

The summer job program is one of the programs the industry council oversees in Southeast Missouri.

Nationwide, the program serves 615,000 youth. In Southeast Missouri, the program provides training and employment to about 600 youth, ages 14 to 21.

The House Appropriations Committee recently voted to eliminate the program, a move that would save about $870 million a year.

The full House is scheduled to vote Thursday on a measure to cut the entire federal budget. Included in the measure is the elimination of the summer jobs program.

U.S. Rep. Bill Emerson hasn't said how he will vote on the matter.

But the Cape Girardeau lawmaker said Americans made it clear in the November election they want government trimmed.

"The American people think they pay too much in taxes and they think the government spends too much," Emerson said.

Swift, however, said Congress would be shortsighted to cut job training programs that offer an alternative to government welfare.

"The greatest majority of our clients come from welfare families," Swift said, adding that many of them haven't been exposed to the work ethic.

"Lots of young people have never seen anybody work," he said.

Elimination of the summer jobs program would cost the private industry council about $112,000 in administrative funds.

Eight percent of the $1.4 million in federal funding for the jobs program in Southeast Missouri goes to the private industry council to pay for administrative expenses. Another 7 percent or $98,000 goes to the subcontracting agencies.

The bulk of the funds pay for the minimum-wage jobs given to eligible youth.

Swift said most participants are placed in jobs with city and county governments and non-profit groups. Participants have worked in parks and cleaned up roads.

The summer program runs about 12 weeks. Participants receive two weeks of vocational school training in basic math, language and communications skills before being placed in various jobs.

Locally, the summer jobs program is run through the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School. Each year, 50 to 60 teen-agers participate in the program.

Harold Tilley, the vocational school director, hopes the program isn't abolished.

"I think it would impact upon the youth," he said.