Asked the City Manager to work with the Law Department to draft a home rule petition for the creation of a Cambridge Jobs Training Trust, and report back to the City Council in a timely manner

We are writing to express support for a Jobs Linkage Fee and Jobs Training Trust in Cambridge. This funding and the institutional support to manage and disburse it would strengthen the City’s ability to support residents in attaining careers that match their interests, connecting to the innovation economy that Cambridge is known for, and ensuring they can afford to stay in the city and provide for their families.

Over the nearly 40 years since Boston adopted their Jobs Linkage Fee, more than $55 million has been disbursed to support job training and educational programs for Boston residents. In the five years since its inception, Somerville’s Job Creation and Retention Trust Fund has allocated nearly $3 million in job training awards. This funding has been a boon to Somerville residents in securing good-paying jobs needed for our modern-day economy.

Many of our organizations have received funding from the Boston and Somerville jobs trusts to support our training programs— from informational technology training to preparation for careers in biomedical sciences to pharmacy technician instruction to culinary training and beyond. Without this critical support, we would have a difficult time serving as many residents as we do with the level of support they deserve.

We applaud the city for its current support of job training and vocational support programs, including through the Community Learning Center, Cambridge Works, and the Cambridge Employment Program. A Jobs Linkage Fee and Jobs Training Trust would build upon that support and allow the City to expand partnerships to provide a greater array of career training opportunities. It would also allow a greater possibility for job training programs to increase the range of residents who are able to utilize the programs by providing stipends to participants, which Somerville and Boston have had found impactful.

As the City has noted in its previous examination of the issue, Cambridge currently has the authority to enact a Jobs Linkage Fee. The City’s most recent Nexus Study provides the basis for a fee of up to $1.51/sf on new development. The increase in the linkage fee on new commercial development would represent only a small fraction of the City’s current $33.34/sf fee, but it would generate millions of dollars over the next decade.

To disburse it most effectively, the City should also establish a Jobs Training Trust so that funding may be received and disbursed across multiple fiscal years, which would require a home rule petition from the state legislature. Boston and Somerville passed similar home rule petitions to create their trusts and had them acted on expediently by the legislature.

Cambridge understands how important its Housing Linkage Fee and Affordable Housing Trust have been to building and maintaining affordable housing in the city and helping to alleviate the displacement crisis the city has been experiencing. A Jobs Linkage Fee is functionally similar—a small fee is assessed per square foot (currently $2.99 per square foot in Somerville and $2.39 per square foot in Boston) on commercial developments over a certain size (15,000 square feet in Somerville and 100,000 square feet in Boston). This funding then goes on to help residents in these communities train for good-paying jobs and the economic mobility they afford.

Though Cambridge has seen exponential growth in the recent decades, wages have not kept up and many residents are struggling to afford to stay in the city they grew up in and call home. We believe that a Jobs Linkage Fee and Jobs Training Trust can be a part of the solution. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Carl Nagy-Koechlin

H. Kay Howard

Geeta Pradhan

Ryan Dominguez

Pam Eddinger

Jean Terranova

Aisha Necoechea

Kelley Tuthill

Andrea Anderson

Dr. Geralde Gabeau

Marvin Venay

Walter Mena

Don Sands

Nancy O’Brien

Cambridge YMCA