WHEREAS:
The nation’s infrastructure is a vital public good, central to economic growth and opportunity; and
WHEREAS:
Public jobs in infrastructure design, maintenance, building and operations create access to the middle class for millions of working families; and
WHEREAS:
State and local governments require ongoing and direct federal aid, either through grants or financing to fund infrastructure; and
WHEREAS:
The Trump infrastructure plan would dramatically shift costs from the federal government to state and local governments, encourage new tolling on existing roads and incentivize local governments to sell public assets to private financiers; and
WHEREAS:
The plan would further incentivize the use of costly and untested public-private partnerships to replace the traditional role of the public sector in designing, financing, operating and maintaining public works.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
That AFSCME shall oppose the Trump infrastructure plan, and any plan that prioritizes public-private partnerships over public projects, or fails to deliver the necessary direct support to state and local governments, or encourages the privatization or sale of publicly-owned infrastructure such as roads, tunnels, bridges, airports, transit systems or utilities to private operators; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED:
That AFSCME shall support an infrastructure proposal that:
- Gives state and local governments the necessary support to complete long-overdue projects without counterproductive incentives to privatize.
- Recognizes the role infrastructure spending plays in building the middle class through good jobs for our most vulnerable communities.
- Preserves the historically-tested role of the public sector in designing, financing, operating and maintaining public infrastructure.
- Maintains the federal subsidy for financing of public infrastructure by continuing the tax exemption for municipal bonds and/or developing a program modeled on the “Build America Bonds” program that includes direct federal subsidy of the interest rate payable on municipal bonds.
SUBMITTED BY:
Christopher Mabe, President and Delegate
Kathy Stewart, Secretary-Treasurer and Delegate
OCSEA/AFSCME Local 11
Ohio