ELECTED OFFICIAL IMPLORE CANDIDATES ON INFRASTRUCTURE

INDUSTRY INTERESTS
IMPLORE PRESIDENTIAL
CANDIDATES TO BOOST
INFRASTRUCTURE EFFORTS

President of National Conference
of Mayors Promotes Water,
Road Infrastructure
at August New York City

by Tom Kuennen

September 2008 -- Transportation and industry special interest groups -- along with local and state elected officials -- are ramping up promotion of their viewpoints as both political parties consolidate their platforms and candidates in advance of the November election.

In late August the American Association of Highway & Transportation Officials (AASHTO) said the Alliance for Improving America’s Infrastructure, formed under the leadership of the National Association of Manufacturers, called on both Obama and McCain to support an economic stimulus bill this fall to provide funding for the country’s crumbling highways, bridges, and transportation systems. The alliance says a transportation infrastructure stimulus package could potentially create 750,000 jobs by year’s end.

“There are $18 billion in infrastructure projects across the nation that are ready to go – not ‘roads to nowhere’ but projects that have been studied at length and validated beyond question,” said John Engler, president of the manufacturers association. “We must join together to find solutions to this crisis – and creating jobs by funding the 3,000 highway and transportation projects that are ready to begin immediately is a good place to start.”

Engler, a former governor of Michigan, has a long experience with transportation infrastructure. In February 2002, Engler was honored by the Foundation for Pavement Preservation (FP2) with its first President’s Award for Pavement Preservation Excellence. The award recognizes the governor for “his steadfast commitment to improved asset management practices through pavement preservation.”

The alliance’s numbers were based on a survey conducted earlier this year by the American Association of State Highway & Transportation Officials.

“Both presidential candidates, along with Congress, must not waste this critical opportunity to put the economy back on track by funding critical infrastructure projects in a stimulus bill, one of the most immediate and sustainable ways to share up our struggling economy,” said Jim Talent, a former Missouri senator who is the alliance’s honorary chairman. “Investments in our country’s roads, rails, and bridges literally pay for themselves, creating a five-fold return in benefits to the state and national economy.”

Mayors Call for Higher Infrastructure Spending

Separately, the nation’s mayors called for a new local/federal partnership to bring critical investment to the nation’s cities in transportation, water, and other critical public infrastructure during a forum in August in New York. The mayors were to bring their concerns to the Republican National Convention in September.

More than a dozen mayors met Aug. 14 with city transportation officials and others to explore ways to replace antiquated transportation and infrastructure systems in ways that are climate and energy centered and that use existing resources more efficiently. The meeting was led by Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and hosted by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

There, mayors called for a new local/federal partnership to bring critical investment to our nation’s cities in transportation, water and other critical public infrastructure.

“National problems require national investments," Diaz said. "The American Society of Civil Engineers grades our nation’s infrastructure at a D requiring a $1.6 trillion investment just to fix it. A bridge collapses in Minneapolis, steam pipes explode in Manhattan, levies burst in New Orleans … and these are not isolated incidents, they are symptoms of an underfunded national infrastructure.”

Public infrastructure is the foundation for economic development, the Conference of Mayors said, adding access to roads, water, sewer, communication technologies, and electricity are all essential to the economy. But they emphasized water over transportation infrastructure, releasing a report on water infrastructure that shows for every one dollar invested in public water and sewer infrastructure services, approximately $8.97 are added to the national economy. "The expert consensus is that public infrastructure investment yields positive returns," the mayors said, "and investment in water and sewer infrastructure has greater returns than most other types of public infrastructure."

The New York gathering was the second in a series of mayoral forums this year in key cities around the country intended to challenge the next administration to invest in America’s cities and metropolitan areas. Mayors also took their infrastructure cause to St. Paul, Minn., during the Republican National Convention, to stress the need for more federal investment in roads, bridges, water systems, and other projects.

“The federal government is not investing enough in our infrastructure and, when it does, it’s not investing wisely,” Bloomberg said in a statement issued after the event. “If America is going to remain the world’s economic superpower, this must change.”

END