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Pro-Business Alliance Puts Muscle Into Major Federal Infrastructure Spending
Aside from the Alliance for Improving America's Infrastructure, others are also calling for heightened federal infrastructure investment. The nation's mayors earlier this month held their second Mayors '08 Action Forum on Infrastructure in New York City, where mayors called for a new local/federal partnership to bring critical investment to our nation's cities in transportation, water and other critical public infrastructure. Miami Mayor Manny Diaz says he believes that Washington no longer invests in its cities and its people. "Washington has lost its values - lost its principles -- lost its sense of purpose -- engaging in endless debate and partisan bickering while people in this country continue to suffer. ... Plain and simple, Washington has abandoned us," Diaz says.
Also, Pennsylvania Gov.
Based on a national survey conducted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), there are more than 3,000 infrastructure projects nationwide, totaling over $18 billion, that are ready to be built. Once these projects are funded, it will be only three months before supplies are purchased and workers start receiving -- and spending -- their paychecks, the Alliance for Improving America's Infrastructure contends.
"Both presidential candidates, along with Congress, must not waste this critical opportunity to put the economy back on track by funding critical infrastructure projects in a stimulus bill, one of the most immediate and sustainable ways to shore up our struggling economy," says Talent, honorary chairman of the Alliance for Improving America's Infrastructure. "Investments in our country's roads, rails and bridges literally pay for themselves, creating a five-fold return in benefits to the state and national economy. For every billion dollars spent on infrastructure, 42,000 jobs are created or sustained, and more than $5.70 of economic benefits is generated for every dollar invested."
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