Dec 8, 2008 8:05 pm US/Eastern
Mayors Push Main Street Economic Recovery
Miami Could See Billions Of Dollars In Federal Help If Plans Are Approved
WASHINGTON (CBS4) ―
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Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and the U.S. Conference of Mayors are asking for emergency federal aid for local infrastructure projects which they say will create jobs and stimulate the economy.
CBS
Stressing that investing in Main Street will help Wall Street, the nation's mayors gathered in Washington D.C. to push for emergency federal aid to fund infrastructure projects on Monday. The mayors say Main Street Economic Recovery is the most direct path to creating jobs which will stimulate business and help reverse the current economic downturn.
Led by U.S Conference of Mayors President Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, the mayors, including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaigosa, will release their second report on a number of local 'ready-to-go' infrastructure projects, those which can be started and completed in two years, if the emergency funding were made available.
According to the report, the 'ready to go' projects include Community Development Block Grants, transit, highway infrastructure, green jobs, school modernization, public safety and public housing.
Click Here for the list of projects in the report.
At the IBEW local in Miami apprentice electricians studying are hoping the local economy gets a jolt.
"Any time that I don't have a job is money that I can't give to my family, money that can have my house in foreclosure," said Andreas Osuna.
"Each one of us in here has a story to tell about how the economy has affected them," said Lee Handsford.
The mayors say Main Street metropolitan economies, which comprise 90% of our gross domestic product, are the most direct path to creating jobs which will stimulate business and help reverse the current economic downturn.
"Our plan calls for investments that will stimulate our economy by quickly creating jobs, fixing our aging and crumbling infrastructure, increasing our global competitiveness, and further decreasing our carbon footprint," said Mayor Diaz.
The mayor's proposals seem to be in line with President elect Barak Obama's future plans. Over the weekend Obama said he wants to revive the economy and create jobs by upgrading roads, schools and energy efficiency in a public-works program whose scale has been unseen since construction of the interstate highway system in the 1950s. The ideas were outlined in the weekly radio address the day after the government reported that employers cut 533,000 jobs in November, the most in 34 years. They are part of a vision for a massive economy recovery plan Obama wants Congress to pass and have waiting on his desk when he takes office Jan. 20.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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