October 4, 2010

Reversing Decades of Underinvestment. The nation's surface transportation system is broken. Because the nation has failed to invest in sustainable transportation systems in cities and metropolitan areas, families spend too much time in traffic and businesses cannot efficiently move their products to markets. The United States cannot successfully compete in the global economy if we fail to invest adequately in our transportation infrastructure – particularly in cities and metropolitan areas – which underpin the nation's economic output.

Confronting Energy and Climate Challenges. Existing modes of transportation currently consume more than two-thirds of our nation's oil supply and are responsible for nearly a third of our carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, we need to make tomorrow's transportation infrastructure more energy efficient, more environmentally sustainable and less reliant on foreign oil. The federal surface transportation authorization should address energy, economic, and climate concerns through reforms and programs that emphasize sustainable investments.

This is why mayors urge President Obama and the Congress to redeploy existing resources and commit new resources to accelerate investments in cities and metropolitan areas through these actions in the federal surface transportation authorization.

Direct Investments in Cities and Metropolitan Areas. Develop new-targeted mode-neutral investment policies to ensure that two-thirds of federal funding commitments are made transportation infrastructure in cities and metropolitan areas.

TIGER. The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) program must be continued with increased funding to reflect demand. TIGER awarded more than 74 percent of funding to transit, rail, and multimodal projects, and 53 percent of the funding went to local sponsors – including cities.

State-of-Good. Aging infrastructure is causing maintenance needs to rise in cities, while federal resources continue to go toward new road capacity. Federal transportation programs should prioritize spending to bring infrastructure to a state of good.

Expanding Transit Access. The next authorization presents an opportunity to realize the transportation efficiencies and advantages that cities can offer beginning with a significant increase in investments in transit capital projects to begin meeting the escalating demand for more public transportation and mitigate decades of underinvestment. The current unequal local match requirements for new road projects and new transit projects funded by the federal government should be raised or lowered to make them equal, eliminating the practice of a dual standard between the modes. The definition of local match for transit projects should be expanded to include the portfolio of local investments in transit networks related to the FTA eligible project. The FTA's evaluation criteria for new transit projects should be updated to include real estate value capture and land use and environmental benefits associated with the project. Federal support of transit operations should be restored to capitalize on the unprecedented growth in ridership.

Connecting Cities with High-Speed Rail. Provide dedicated funding for development of High-Speed intercity passenger rail corridors – equal to the investment made a half-century ago building the Interstate Highway System. Provide proceeds from the federal issuance of bonds for infrastructure investments and proceeds from climate and energy legislation for development of High-Speed rail corridors. The Northeast Corridor should be included as one of the federally designated High-Speed rail corridors thereby making it eligible for federal High-Speed rail funding.

Livable Cities. Projects that increase bicycling and walking should be encouraged by streamlining the approval process and providing greater funding to support them, including establishing set asides for such projects within programs such as the Surface Transportation Program (STP).

Smart Transportation Investments. With all the key transportation programs short of resources, this situation argues for consideration of creative, broader revenue and financing options to reward greater state investment, modal neutrality in use of state transportation funds, creation of a national infrastructure bank, and make permanent Build America Bonds that will increase commitments to transportation infrastructure broadly, not just one mode at a time or in a piecemeal fashion. Expand existing and/or establish new federal tax preferred bond programs with very high subsidies that would allow state and local governments to issue tax-preferred debt at or near zero percent interest for transportation projects that meet a national criteria, such as reduction of greenhouse gas, and already have significant non-federal sources committed. Modify the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program to enable the U.S. Department of Transportation to make an upfront credit commitment to a project sponsor at an earlier stage of development for projects that already have the majority of non-federal funding committed and that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Public-Private Partnerships should be considered potentially valuable tools in addressing infrastructure investment.