A National "Infrastructure Inventory" movement a first, concrete step to "Rebuild the Dream" - Discussion Draft
The Concept: A nationwide, organized, but locally-based Infrastructure inventory: The project will be developed as an organizing/education tool that can be used to create a tangible, community-based infrastructure and jobs agenda. It is - in its process as well as its goal - a concrete action-plan, directly related to local initiative, experience and needs.
The project would be directed toward two primary goals - one is to support establishment of a major "National Infrastructure Bank." A proposal along these lines has generated some bi-partisan (!?!?!) support in the Senate and an alliance between Dick Trumpka of the AFL-CIO and the head of the Chamber of Commerce. It's probably as "non-partisan" a proposal as we can find in this divisive age. It's also an important initiative on its own merits and isn't difficult to explain across a broad terrain of our citizenry. The second, and equally essential piece, is to build a constituency that can lobby for direct federal aid to state and local governments to support regional infrastructure repair and retro-fitting. (This aid might take the form of some kind of Fed-backed bonds, given that the market for U.S. Treasury instruments is still remarkably advantageous to our country as a lender, despite the bizarre tantrums, cranks and hysterics over our becoming "Greece.")
So two fundamental social and economic needs are included - one mid-term and one immediate. The Bank would support larger projects that are essential to sustaining and modernizing the US economic base. The injection of direct aid for repair and retro-fitting at the state and local level deals with critical our short-term infrastructure needs and can give a quick boost to employment and injecting some cash into a still-staggering economy. This can have broad appeal - if only because I don't know anyone who doesn't see potholes in the streets that haven't been repaired in years, as our communities struggle with a declining revenue base just to maintain the most essential services like police and fire departments.
(A) An Infrastructure Bank -This piece - the big piece - would cover financing of larger "shovel ready" and medium term projects.
The list would include:
Basic Transportation - roads, highways, bridges, tunnels, rails
"21st Century" Communications & power grids
Green energy Projects
Water systems
Waste disposal
(what else?)
(B) An even more urgent proposal would provide for aid directly to state and local governments for immediate infrastructure repairs and retro-fits. This would quickly spur new hiring and contracts for projects. Additional money would be allocated for "Conservation Corps" jobs for youth in the 18-24 year old age range, to assist in local repairs, serve apprenticeships and develop job skills.
Process - "Rebuild the Dream": Local grassroots committees begin the work of organizing and outreach in their communities over the issue of infrastructure (as well as local budget crises and cuts that are causing a decline in general services and quality of life.) Starting with potholes & needed repairs to local schools; then assessments of roads & bridges; state of public buildings and parks; include ideas for basic retro-fitting throughout the community for energy conservation. Then some assessment of larger projects that aren't "shovel ready" but are needed over the mid-to-long term in order to keep the region economically sustainable. Link these repairs and projects to estimated impact on jobs, economic growth and future revenues.
Method: Begin with a rough assessment of areas to explore. Involve local government & transportation agency officials; academics, engineers & contractors with appropriate expertise; visit local schools to assess repair and "plant" needs; canvas neighborhoods to gather information/ideas and build a base for positive "public opinion." Organize grass-roots outreach at the block-by-block "friends and neighbors" level. Create a local "infrastructure council" bringing together leaders from key sectors of the community, along with volunteer consultants who have expertise. Involve - in organization and in broad community outreach - local faith communities, unions, business associations including the local Chamber of Commerce, students as well as relevant departments & educators in local colleges and universities; city officials and department heads; issue-oriented or political action groups that are open to this discussion.
Coordiinate media outreach and a communications strategy: Begin media relations and the task of educating journalists early on. Invite journalists to cover initial planning meetings as well as stages of the process, up to and including the national campaign. Provide the media with good information from the start. Hold some well-publicized, broadly representative public forums on the outlines of the issue as part of the initiative. Probably a "kick-off" forum along with a forum that can focus on some tangible results of the project.
Results: Establish some priorities within the collected data, but don't exclude anyone's reasonable concerns. Build layers of data locally, regionally and at the state level. Bring the information gathered together at the national level - along with a credible extrapolation of the "median" or "average" data to the areas that didn't directly participate. Use this as a document for further organizing, engaging people in "town halls" pressuring congressional representatives, Senators and federal officials. Use everything from flyers, petitions, localized websites, blogs, and national campaign resources of Move-On, labor unions, Campaign for America's Future, Rebuild the Dream, etc. If the Chamber of Commerce can be on board in some fashion, fine. Keep the Infrastructure coalition and the resultant political pressure as broadly based as possible.
This is just the draft of an idea for a national campaign that can actually engage hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens in a conversation about the must urgent of our economic issues. The "virtue" of this proposal - in my view - is that it has multiple components of practical proposals that draw on the experience of a broad citizenry, it develops an agenda that can bridge the concerns of politicians and activists at the local, state and national levels, it is action-oriented and provides a foundation for a broadly AND boldly concieved organizing strategy that goes beyond rhetoric or political laundry lists.
It combines an immediate and a mid-range agenda. It's easy to understand and doesn't have any "ideological" bias, beyond what could fairly be termed "common sense." It opens up avenues for dialogue on the real nature of the economic crisis, taking it in the direction of government investment rather than phony deficit hysterics. It's reasonable, "reality-based" and responsible, but - in the current badly-skewed political climate - also rather dramatically "radical" in the best sense of getting to the root of real problems. It offers common solutions that appeal to "common sense."
In terms of ambitions and scale, eight or a dozen local activists could have a significant impact as part of a national movement using this strategy in their community. But it has the potential of involving hundreds, even thousands, of people in any locality in conversations, petition-signing, letter-writing, phone calls, town halls, etc.
There is real potential for a ripple effect, as the circle widens, that doesn't often present itself. This is an issue that can cross a lot of the divides we often face in political organizing - the appeal and perceived need addressed is widespread. It bridges the urgency of a national agenda focused on jobs and the crises of many state and local governments, as well as the immediate and longer-term economic future. It offers a platform that can bring local officials into a dialogue about local needs - rather than just waiting for Washington to come up with an answer. And it connects the abstract notion of "government spending" with tangible results, while opening the door for a wider conversation about the relationship of tax cuts to the deficits. It also, politically, offers an opportunity to put the question of responsive and responsible congressional representation on the table in districts that have elected "do nothing" Republicans.
Docs:
New York Times - March 15, 2011
Group Wants New Bank to Finance Infrastructure By MICHAEL COOPER
Amid growing concerns that the nation’s infrastructure is deteriorating, a group of Democrats, Republicans, and labor and business leaders called Tuesday for the creation of a national infrastructure bank to help finance the construction of things like roads, bridges, water systems and power grids.
The proposal — sponsored by Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas — would establish an independent bank to provide loans and loan guarantees for projects of regional or national significance. The idea is to attract more infrastructure investment from the private sector: by creating an infrastructure bank with $10 billion now, they say, they could spur up to $640 billion worth of infrastructure spending over the next decade.
“We have a choice,” Mr. Kerry said at a news conference in Washington. “We can either build, and compete, and create jobs for our people, or we can fold up, and let everybody else win. I don’t think that’s America. I don’t believe anybody wants to do that.”
To underscore the need for better infrastructure, two frequent rivals were on hand at the news conference: Richard Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., and Thomas J. Donohue, the president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the main business lobby. With a nod to the strange-bedfellows experience of having a labor leader as an ally, Mr. Donohue said, “He and I are going to take our show on the road as the new ‘Odd Couple.’ ”
But the proposal may not have clear sailing. While Senators Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, and Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat, will undoubtedly support the measure, Senate officials said the outlook for such a program is dim, given the current fiscal constraints. And Congress, like state governments, has been hesitant to cede control of choosing which projects to finance, even as their spending priorities have often been questioned.
President Obama has called for establishing an infrastructure bank since his 2010 campaign. His budget calls for establishing one — and gives it the catchier name I-Bank — that would work somewhat differently: it would create a $30 billion bank that would invest in transportation projects alone, and that would provide grants as well as loans.
With an expanded reach that includes water and energy projects, the bank being proposed in the Senate would be able to spur investment from more types of private funds, and back projects in a wider swath of the nation, said Michael B. Likosky, the author of “Obama’s Bank: Financing a Durable New Deal.”
Leo Girard, President of United Steelworkers:
Infrastructure Crisis
Coincident with the loss of trade and manufacturing is the decline of our nation’s infrastructure. After years of under-investing in public infrastructure, America faces an infrastructure deficit of $3 trillion that is impeding economic growth and undermining our economy’s efficiency. We need to spend $2.2 trillion over just the next five years to meet America’s core infrastructure needs, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. But actual spending plans fall far short.
• Create a levered National Infrastructure Bank. The administration and Congress should create a national infrastructure bank that would be an independent financial institution owned by the government. Able to fund a broad range of infrastructure projects beyond roads, rails and runways, it would make loans and loan guarantees and leverage private capital. It should be able to sell or issue general purpose bonds to raise funds for lending and investment, sell specific project bonds when necessary, and invite private investment, along with state and local government pension plan investments.
Green Economy
Employment opportunities in the “green economy” can provide some relief, although not as much as some project. According to Booz Allen, green projects will create eight million jobs by 2013; the Global Climate Network puts that number at 20 million world-wide by 2030. Bolstering this segment of our economy will put people to work in manufacturing jobs that have the greatest multiplier effect, and will stimulate more economic growth. Leaders in Washington must do more to encourage growth in this industry.
• Extend the Cash Grant Program for renewable energy production. This program converts non-refundable tax credits for renewable energy production into cash grants. Extending the program until the equity and debt markets recover will help create jobs and avoid further job loss in the industry.
• Lengthen the period of the Advanced Manufacturing Tax Credit. ARRA authorized up to $2.3 billion in tax credits for investments in qualified advanced energy projects at manufacturing facilities, such as energy storage, electricity transmission, energy conservation technologies, and others.
• Expand Title 17 Loan Guarantee Program. Title 17 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 provides federal loan guarantees for the construction of energy-related facilities that use “new or significantly improved technologies” which are “non-commercial” and have high technological risk. These guarantees lower the cost of capital for these projects. Broadening Title 17 to include energy-efficiency investments would help spur this market and create new jobs.
Youth Employment
The hardest hit among the unemployed are young people. Almost 25 percent of teenagers from 16 to 19 are officially unemployed. For young adults aged 20 to 24, unemployment is nearly 16 percent – a number not seen since 1948. Many of these disconnected youth are at risk of becoming permanently disengaged from the labor market. Young people who do not have a successful work experience by age 25 are also at greater risk of lifelong poverty.
Ref: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2011073027/vision-economic-renewal-american-jobs-agenda
AFL-CIO's Trumka:
Grow America’s Economy by Investing in Infrastructure, Job Development
by James Parks, Mar 22, 2011 - AFL-CIO "NOWBLOG"
U.S. economic and trade policies over the past three decades have led to jobs lost offshore and a shrinking middle class, and the United States must address this economic bleed through trade policies and investment in infrastructure and manufacturing, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said today.
Speaking this morning to the International Economic Development Council, Trumka said the United States must invest in building the 21st century infrastructure necessary for our future, including high-speed mass transit, smart utilities and universal high-speed broadband. That investment, in turn, would boost manufacturing because we will then:
buy what we need in America—from concrete, wire, steel and pipes to high-speed trains. And all this will restore revenues for crucial state and local services.
Trumka didn’t mince words when he discussed trade and the need for U.S. trade policies to keep jobs in this country.
Let me put this bluntly: China is cheating, and its currency manipulations have to rebuild our manufacturing base and pointed out that our trading partners—including China, Germany, India, South Korea and Brazil—have manufacturing strategies, but we don’t.
President Obama has proposed more investments in our country and, Trumka warned, those ideas cannot be drowned out by the deficit debate because they can yield great rewards.
The nation’s lack of a national industrial plan hurts all of us, workers and business, every day, Trumka said.
Individually, we’re all but powerless against hungry and powerful countries like China or India, which are willing to build-to-suit for any American corporation.
Separately, our voices get lost in the background noise. But if we join together, we can truly build an economic development movement, a massive tide of investment and research that will raise all of our boats.
The bottom line, said Trumka, is that this nation can remain great if we believe in ourselves and work together—business, economic development community, workers, government and colleges.
We can win today’s industrial race if we marshal our resources. We can build the best wind turbines and develop the new green energy technologies to capture and use solar and thermal energy.
US Chamber of Commerce
http://ncf.uschamber.com/lra_eventseries/
Philadelphia's Green infrastructure agenda:
http://www.theurbn.com/2011/06/a-new-green-infrastructure-agenda-in-philadelphia/
Obama's infrastructure agenda:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-26/roads-bridges-high-speed-rail-top-obama-transportation-agenda.html
Brookings Panel on infrastructure (w PDF transcript):
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2010/0916_infrastructure.aspx
COLLAPSED I-35W BRIDGE IN MINNEAPOLIS - Photo: Heather Munro/Star Tribune
