The world has changed tremendously since the ‘30s, but that hasn’t stopped Gov. M. Jodi Rell from taking a page from FDR’s playbook to try to solve Connecticut’s modern day unemployment problem. It did some good then. Why not now?
Rell was at Valley Falls Park in Vernon Monday to promote the Connecticut Conservation Corps, a project based on the Civilian Conservation Corps program President Franklin Roosevelt initiated to help lift the nation out of the Great Depression.
Rell originally hoped would be up and running by July 1, but then came major budget troubles. She originally proposed $7.5 million in funding from the state’s budget to establish the corps back in February. That's when Connecticut’s expected deficit was around $6 billion. Then deficit estimates grew and grew.
Jeffrey Beckham, spokesman for Rell's budget office, said that the state's worsening fiscal situation caused the administration to have second thoughts about the $7.5 million investment, the Stamford Advocate reports.
Curt Johnson, director of programs and senior attorney for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, told the Advocate, “I just assumed [the program] was all tied up in the budget mess.”
However, the program has put to work more than two dozen 17 to 24 year-olds this summer, even with the funds being dropped from future budget proposals. The funding is now coming from $11 million in federal stimulus funds the state received for summer youth employment.
Members of the program work to repair and clear trails, build picnic tables and lifeguard towers, and install signage among other things, according to the governor’s office. They have worked to improve Goodwin State Forest in Hampton, Shenipsit State Forest in Ellington, Bigelow Hollow State Park in Union and Hammonasset State Park in Madison.
Connecticut’s corps is a partnership between the state Departments of Environmental Protection and various Labor and Workforce Investment Boards across the state.
“Good ideas never grow old … The original CCC helped transform our national and state park system, including parks in Connecticut, and was a valuable experience for the young men who participated. That is why I want to bring the concept back this year in the form of the Connecticut Conservation Corps,” Rell said.
There were 22 original CC camps in Connecticut, when FDR started the program in 1932 with about 200 to 250 young men living at each of them. Back in the '30s, participants signed up for six-month stints and lived in military style camps run by military officers. These days, workers will be able to enjoy the luxuries of their own homes as they commute to work.
There is also a hefty pay increase. Back then, workers were paid $1 a day and were required to send $25 of their pay back home to their families every month. Now you get paid $8 an hour and can spend it however you please.
