Urban Manufacturing
Adopted at the 79th Annual Meeting in 2011
WHEREAS, manufacturing plays a central role in the U.S. economy, with 300,000 firms employing 11.7 million people and supporting an additional 7 million related jobs; generating $1.64 trillion in goods; and accounting for the majority of U.S. exports; and
WHEREAS, manufacturing jobs serve as a gateway to the middle class, paying significantly higher wages than the retail and personal?service businesses - 19.3 percent over the national private sector average - in both large and small cities and metropolitan areas; and
WHEREAS, manufacturing firms are a major driver of national innovation capacity, accounting for 70 percent of industry-funded research and development; and
WHEREAS, manufacturing brings revenues into the city and metropolitan economy from external areas, states, and countries, also supporting job creation in other parts of the local economy; and
WHEREAS, the U.S. lost nearly a third of its manufacturing jobs over the past the decade; and
WHEREAS, the pre-recession U.S. growth model driven by highly-leveraged domestic consumption cannot sustain recovery, and the next economy must refocus on production, exports, innovation, and opportunity at all skill levels; and
WHEREAS, unlike when large companies dominated U.S. production, today's manufacturing sector is increasingly located in cities, comprised of decentralized networks of small, specialized firms, with nearly 16 percent of all manufacturers employing fewer than 20 people; and
WHEREAS, research shows that manufacturers in urban areas are more productive, pay higher median wages, and generate synergies; and
WHEREAS, despite bipartisan interest, the Administration's "Framework for Revitalizing American Manufacturing," and various legislative proposals, there remains a multitude of unconnected federal programs and no comprehensive national strategy for reviving and sustaining a strong manufacturing sector, NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors urges the Obama Administration and the U.S. Congress to establish and pursue a clear manufacturing strategy that better incorporates the role and value of manufacturing in broader urban and economic development policies and programs; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that federal place-based planning and infrastructure programs, such as the Partnership for Sustainable Communities and Economic Development Administration regional cluster initiatives, should explicitly consider alignment of physical development with economic development objectives in support of the manufacturing sector, including goods movement infrastructure and urban industrial parks as transit-oriented development; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the federal government should evaluate existing access to capital programs for constraints on urban manufacturing support, such as in Small Business Administration loan program criteria related to firm size, sectors, and property ownership; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the federal government should seek to reallocate existing resources in order to expand or fill gaps in manufacturing program support services, such as better linkages with engineering research on manufacturing methods, and work across groups of assemblers and suppliers; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the federal government should assess changes to the tax code that enable real estate development to address the needs of smaller urban manufacturers, such as allowing use of Industrial Revenue Bonds for development of multi-tenanted rental industrial buildings; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors supports promotion of workforce policies and programs that better enable training in manufacturing-related skills and address identified barriers to small manufacturer growth, such as flexibility to train incumbent workers as proposed in the Strengthening Employment Clusters to Organize Regional Success Act.