By Ione Hess
July 30, 2007

Conference President Trenton Mayor Douglas H. Palmer participated on July 26 in The Diane Rehm Show in Washington D.C. to debate aging and deteriorating infrastructure in the country. The steam pipe explosion in New York City on July 18 has triggered a wave of talk across the country about the need for improving the current infrastructure in the United States.

There’s no doubt that the issue has gained momentum, and the Conference has taken the opportunity to push for item No 6 in the Conference’s 10 Point-Plan, which calls for tax incentives, bonds, and other measures to support local efforts to improve infrastructure including transportation, water, wastewater, brownfields, school, housing as well as energy and telecommunications.

During the hour-long discussion in the nationally recognized radio show, David Mongan, President-elect of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and Janet F. Kavinoky, Director of Transportation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, joined Palmer’s call for more attention on the part of the federal government to the long standing crisis generated by the poor conditions and lack of resources to address the aging infrastructure issue in America’s cities.

“At The U.S. Conference of Mayors we are pushing for more federal funds, public-private partnerships, tax credits and other initiatives. But the public and the politicians in Washington really need to understand that for us to be competitive in a global economy, we need more that just having workers trained. Our infrastructure has to meet the demands, or it’s going to hurt our economy.

“We have a real problem here and when you look at the money we’re spending in Iraq – of course I know that we have a responsibility to rebuild their infrastructure – but we need to take care of home as well, because this is important for our future generations as climate change and global competitiveness are, if we want our economy to continue to grow. And these are investments. This is not even something that will be nice to do. We have to do it or we are going to loose out to countries all across the world.

“I believe that the public will support a gas tax – even as expensive as gas is right now – if they know that money is clearly going to help the infrastructure, help the global economy, and if it is explained the right way.

“Our infrastructure is falling apart, how are you going to pay for it? I think it really requires real leadership, on the part of governors, mayors, because we sort of lead the way.”