State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Mayors Skeptical of Trump Infrastructure Plan

Governing: When big-city mayors met in Washington last week, one of their primary messages regarding infrastructure was that the federal government should send new money directly to cities, rather than through states. The Trump administration seems open to the idea.

“The folks in this room turn dirt faster than anybody in America,” New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said at a meeting on infrastructure at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ meeting last week. “We think that cities are the place where a lot of this [federal infrastructure] money ought to land.”

D.J. Gribbin, a special assistant to President Trump on infrastructure, told the packed ballroom of mayors that cities – or any other unit of government – would have an opportunity to apply for money directly from the federal government, under a plan being drafted by the White House. But anyone looking for federal help would have to raise their own money first.

Read article