SGA Monthly Coalition Call

7/29/2010

4:00PM EST

Attendance

Peter Fleischer- Empire State Future

Renee - National Trust for Historic Preservation

Dawn Larzalere - Greater Ohio

Chrissy Nichols Mancini – Metropolitan Planning Council

Tim Trohimovich - Futurewise

Jack Machek -10,000 Friends of PA

Kevin Doyle – Livable Communities Coalition

Sam Haffner – 1,000 Friends of OR

Stephanie Potts, Mara D’Angelo, Rayla Bellis, Jon Zeidler - SGA

Federal Policy Updates (Stephanie Potts)

For more information, view SGA’s biweekly Washington Update

Appropriations for the Sustainable Communities Partnership: For DOT, we’ve been advocating for a new livability grant program. For HUD, we’re working towards additional funding for the sustainable communities initiative. The house bill originally had full funding for all the programs we were supporting, but today some funding was taken out for DOT and EPA. We’re hoping it will be put back in conference. Funding for the HUD program within the house bill is still intact.

The Livable Communities Act is moving forward in the senate, and the senate banking committee will take up the bill within the next few weeks.

Action Item: This is a great time to call senators in support of the bill. To find members of the banking committee go to We’d also like to reach out to republicans on the committee—they probably won’t support the bill but we’re hoping to soften their opposition.

New York Smart Growth Bill (Peter Fleischer, Empire State Future)

Public Infrastructure Policy Act - will be formally sent to the governor in the next few days and they have every reason to expect that he will sign it some time in August. The bill instructs all state agencies to align infrastructure spending with specific smart growth criteria.
There is one loophole—agency commissioners can state that a project doesn’t meet the smart growth criteria but is necessary, and as long as they adequately justify it in writing they can move forward. Peter doesn’t think they could have passed the bill without that provision and doesn’t know at this point to what extent it will be used, but he views the fact that an ‘out’ was included as positive since it’s hard to know what types of projects might come up in the future. With the exception of the loophole, the bill currently covers every penny of infrastructure spending.
Empire State Future intended to pass the bill in three years but passed it in two. Currently the senate is Democratic by one vote, and Peter thinks some of the Republican senators (they even had Republican sponsors) voted in favor out of a desire to improve voters’ perceptions of their support for environmental issues.

Q: What’s the bill number?

A: Senate: S5560B, State Assembly: A8011B

Q: Renee: Does this affect school funding in any way?

A: The Department of Education was one of the first departments to request an exception to the bill, but in the end no one was granted exception. The DOE has to meet the smart growth criteria or write up a justification for why an infrastructure project doesn’t meet the criteria but is necessary just like other state agencies.

One of the ways they sold the bill was related to fiscal rectitude. The need for infrastructure funds will only grow as infrastructure ages. This bill says that agencies must prioritize projects that are socially and environmentally responsible.

Q: Kevin Doyle: When it comes to getting a major bill passed, two years isn’t a long time. Who provided leadership on the floor? Was there a big division in terms of party affiliation?

A: In the final vote it was overwhelmingly approved in both the assembly and the senate. Peter’s take is that once the Republicans realized they wouldn’t have the votes to defeat it, many voted for it as a strategic political move. Weaker smart growth bills have been proposed in the past. This bill had stronger language (because of the dire budget situation), but not strong enough language to totally deter Republicans. The state senate only recently has a Democratic majority (by one vote) and he thinks the unique political make-up, along with the budget crisis, played a big role in the passage of the bill this time around.

Q: Renee: Was there any specific event that sparked the bill’s passage?

A: NY is actually a very diverse state. People picture the city when they think of the state but upstate NY is quite rural, and that region has very little in common socio-economically with the city. Currently the rural population is shrinking just as the suburbs above NYC are growing, and infrastructure spending has catered to this sprawl. So though Peter doesn’t think any one event sparked the bill, he thinks there was recognition in all three regions that change was needed.

Q: Jon Zeidler: Who will handle writing the regulations or guidance for the bill?

A: They are lucky because NY has a smart growth cabinet originally formed under Governor Spitzer. The head of that cabinet is already working to develop regulations for implementation. By the time a new governor is inaugurated in January, they are hopeful that the major guidelines for the bill will already be largely in place. The head of the cabinet has solicited Empire State Future’s help in developing the regulations.

Q: Renee: How did you get the governor on board?

A: They didn’t get him on board, he came into the process already supportive of the concept. Vision Long Island got the governor to come to their summit back in November and he made eight very strong points about smart growth (Peter thinks he wouldn’t even have spoken as strongly). Peter’s only concern is that the governor and his staff don’t always work together, and though he doesn’t expect that to happen in this case he fears it.

Updates

Kevin Doyle, LCC: They just finished a report on workforce housing and they hope it will lead to the implementation of some recommendations. On the transportation front, they are going to have a referendum in July 2012 for a 1% sales tax for transportation. The Atlanta chamber of commerce convened a meeting two weeks ago to build a coalition to support the referendum’s passage. LCC is focusing primarily on the project list for the referendum, working to ensure that 50% of the funding goes to transit projects.

Reminder Next call will be Thursday, August 26th at 4:00pm EDT.