A sustainable economy begins with jobs. To create jobs and build Brockton's economy, Brockton must actively attract growth industries that provide employment opportunities across a wide range of occupations and skill levels. In addition, our employment base must be inclusive. Everyone, regardless of race, age, or location in the city deserves an opportunity to participate in a local economy that will support a good standard of living in Brockton.

With a workforce that's increasingly young and immigrant, and a large small-business environment, many residents have relayed to us that the workforce is too limited and jobs are scarce. Furthermore, we've heard repeatedly from local business owners that the current administration has not demonstrated the willingness to support the long-term growth of their businesses through a strong economic development plan.

Jass Stewart's economic development strategy provides a sound roadmap for building a strong, diverse economy by adequately preparing the workforce for future growth industries, assuring an affordable cost of living in the city, and creating successful neighborhood economies.

Creating a community-based urban plan for immediate- and long-term growth
Devising a city plan that looks five, ten, and twenty years into the future is essential to attracting new, high-growth industries and expanding Brockton's job base. Large businesses are concerned about a city's infrastructure, population trends, economy, and the buy-in of its elected officials and residents to ensure a competitive return on their investment. Over the last ten years, a number of high-profile companies have explored doing business in Brockton, but turned away due to a lack of a viable and well articulated urban plan. Jass Stewart will work with urban planning schools and other institutions to create a city plan that attracts new industries to Brockton. By tying in to the states economic growth strategies and analyzing local demographic data, we will build a roadmap to match the city's population with future jobs; guarantee that education and training meets the demands of area businesses; and ensure that the expertise of small businesses are matched with the needs of larger companies.

Putting an end to the outsourcing of local funds, and cleaning up waste in city hall
One way a city can build jobs is by reinvesting tax dollars locally. For example, in Brockton we have a school department that has a budget for contractual work that's approximately $24 million dollars a year. Every year, the school department awards about $20 million in bids to contractors located outside of Brockton -- our tax dollars leaving the city to bolster economies of other communities. We project that over $40 million a year of the city's budget (about 15%) is outsourced each year, a projection based partially on the fact that the school system's budget is slightly less than half the overall municipal fund. Jass Stewart's administration will develop a strategy to keep more of our tax dollars here at home, by investing in programs to expand the skill set of workers in the city and train local businesses to be more competitive in a global market. To capture the economic opportunity that lies within our own tax dollars, our administration will conduct a top down review of all departments to assess departmental practices to ensure our tax dollars are aggressively re-invested in Brockton.

Leveraging the benefits of healthcare to build Brockton's small business sector
Ensuring healthcare for Brocktonians is not only the right thing to do, Jass Stewart believes it will make Brockton a more competitive place to live and work. With the working poor covered by state and federal programs, and the well-off able to pay, Brockton's small business owners and working families are the one's paying the highest healthcare costs -- usually, no coverage at all. Small businesses are the economic backbone of our city. With healthcare, second only to payroll, as the most expensive cost for small businesses owners, we plan to explore building on the new statewide healthcare bill by providing healthcare coverage to all small business owners in the city and their employees who are Brockton residents. Our belief is that with this tangible benefit, existing small businesses in surrounding towns would be encouraged to move to Brockton. In addition, small business owners in Brockton would focus on hiring local residents to take advantage of this significant cost savings while providing an important benefit to their employees. Through this incentive plan, not only will Brockton residents have the opportunity for full-time jobs with healthcare coverage, but in the process we will also strengthen the very economic structure that supports our city.

Implementing a technology strategy to expand business growth
The Internet is opening up opportunities for increased marketing and sales for the retail, wholesale, and services sector for consumers and among businesses. Jass Stewart sees real opportunity to build Brockton's economy by working with area industries to develop "open-source" e-commerce tools that can be shared among local companies that might not otherwise have the resources to market their businesses online. The greater access Brockton's businesses have to the global marketplace, the more business income, high-paying jobs, and tax revenue we will be able to invest in our city -- contributing to Brockton's long-term economic prosperity.