Washington, DC
December 15, 2008

Conference President Manny Diaz took our MainStreet Economic Recovery Plan to Capitol Hill on Monday, December 8. Along with us were Mayors Daley of Chicago, Villaraigosa of Los Angeles, Bloomberg of New York, Palmer of Trenton, Plusquellic of Akron, Riley of Charleston, Malloy of Stamford, Cicilline of Providence, Leppert of Dallas, Walker of Bowling Green, and Hannemann of Honolulu. This meeting came after last week's meeting between President-elect Obama and the Governors.

At issue is the writing, the substance, the design of the largest amount of money that has ever been sent from Washington to state and local governments in the history of our nation. Congress and President-elect Obama's people are writing it now. The package will be introduced after Congress comes back from holiday recess on January 6, 2009. Congress will pass the National Economic Recovery Initiative once the new Congress is sworn in, and before President-elect Obama takes the oath on January 20. Then President Obama will sign the legislation, and money will flow. So, it is being written now. In less than a month the $500-700 billion will be unveiled. The Obama people say Congress is writing the proposal. Some Congressional leaders are saying the Obama Team is writing the proposal. We are working both groups.

At issue is the distribution of the monies; where will the money be sent? Mayors, who are our metro-executives, driving our metro economies, are vehement about direct funding. One by one, starting with New York City Mayor Bloomberg, then Villaraigosa of L.A., Daley of Chicago, and President Diaz, along with other mayors representing large and small cities, cautioned against sending all of the money to 50 governors. There is deep concern that all infrastructure funds going to the state capitals will not get money to where 84% of our people live - in the metro-areas of our nation. The largest 50 metro areas alone produce almost two-thirds of our total Gross Domestic Product. Our metro economies drive the national economy.

At issue is the design of the mammoth spending bill. President Diaz pushes our MainStreet proposal. Our proposal puts the money out there through formula written established federal programs already in place. Our position is to use the existing statutes such as the Community Development Block Grant (HUD) programs, the Green Jobs, Energy Block Grant (Energy) programs, and the Surface Transportation Program (STP). These three programs have a fair and balanced distribution system between cities, counties, and states. You don't need a Washington pork-barrel spending lobbyist or other groups parading around like they are public interest groups to help you get this money. If they do what we are proposing, and adopt our MainStreet proposal, it would go out by formula 25 - tried and true.

Last Saturday, President-elect Obama did his YouTube address calling for the creation of 2.5 million jobs by 2011. That gives him two years. He has given himself a deadline, and accountable date to the American people. The clock started ticking when he said that.

That's where we come in. Mayors can get President Obama to the Promised Land – the 2.5 million jobs in the next two years. That is why the money for work to begin immediately must be sent directly to our metro areas, not just to states. As stated, our MainStreet design gives to cities, counties and states. We recognize the rural areas are hard hit and under our proposals, governors would provide support for the rural areas. But, the fact is, if we are going to put 2.5 million people back to work, we have to go where masses of populations live, and that is in the metro areas. We don't need to asphalt and pave roads where the pine trees whistle in the wind and crickets light up the quiet rural areas at night with sound. Pine trees and crickets are not out of work; people in our metro-areas are.

Again, 84% of our people live in cities and produce 90% of our labor income and 90% of our Gross Domestic Product.

Our "Ready to Go" MainStreet proposal, released by Mayor Diaz this past Monday, December 8, outlines specific infrastructure projects by name and street address. These are not aggregate figures from your State Highway Department with no specificity of how and when the money will be spent. Ours is like a GPS system, it takes you straight down to the project that will produce lasting infrastructure improvement and jobs now.

The last time we had a federal largesse of money that went out of Washington were the homeland security funds. It was a mess. President Bush, Congress, NACo, NLC, and the Governor's Association opposed The U.S. Conference of Mayors position that direct funding should go to our first responder departments, police, fire, and paramedics. President Bush stood before our Winter Meeting after money had been sent to the states and acknowledged the funds were stuck in state bureaucracies and said he would help us get the funds "unstuck." It was not a pretty picture. We were spending money like a one-arm bandit to keep our cities safe with our police departments. The federal money sent from Washington to assist our first responders was stuck in our Statehouses — not good. Akron Mayor Don Plusquellic, Monday, told Washington it was four years before Akron saw one red cent of homeland security money.

Today, the national economic picture is the worst since the Great Depression. We have done our best and we will continue to push for balanced distribution of the billions of dollars that will be sent from Washington down to you soon. Our meetings this week with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Chairpersons and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid were most important since the national economic recovery legislation will be passed by both the House and Senate. Mayor Diaz and our delegation received favorable reaction as to the substance and speed of the national economic recovery legislation.

President-elect Obama's goal is to create 2.5 million jobs by January 2011. We applaud him for his vision and action. We will help him and he will help us. He, along with his key advisors, Rahm Emanuel, and Valerie Jarrett are "of Chicago." They understand what needs to be done and the mayors will work closely with our new President and his team to meet the job creation goal he announced to the nation this week.

We will continue to push our MainStreet proposal forward. We need your help over the next few weeks. You must inform your House Members and Senators of the importance of national economic recovery funds coming directly to our cities.

Winter Meeting January 17–19, 2009 and Inauguration

Our Winter Meeting next month puts you at ground zero for the inauguration of Senator Barack Hussein Obama to be our 44th President. In addition to the Inaugural, we have our Winter Meeting and it will be a time of meeting Cabinet Officers and members of the new President's team.

I look forward to seeing you next month. Meantime, take some time to have a peaceful Happy Holiday Season. Rest now. There's work to be done, lots of work as we form a new Federal Government for our future.