For the Reporter
Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis was among a bipartisan delegation of more than 40 local leaders who attended the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) summer leadership session in Park City, Utah on Aug. 2-3.
“The Conference of Mayors recognizes the value of our returning veterans, not only as an obligation, but as an opportunity for economic development,” said Lewis, chair of the USMC Veterans Task Force. “I am very thankful to the Conference of Mayors for allowing me to lead this national effort.”
USCM President Scott Smith, the mayor of Mesa, Ariz., led the summit.
The mayors came together for a two-day session to determine the policy direction of the conference for the 2013-2014 term.
As the gridlock in Congress continues, the mayors discussed several federal issues including community development block grants – the most flexible and targeted federal program to cities; municipal bonds; the Marketplace Fairness Act; unfunded mandates; cyber security; immigration reform; education; transportation and the Detroit bankruptcy.
Smith reminded the mayors that unlike Washington, the agenda of America’s mayors centers on key issues that bind communities in a collective purpose.
“These issues are important for the majority of U.S. residents who live in urban areas and we must take seriously our responsibility to advocate not on our behalf, but on theirs,” Smith said. “Cities have a unique message for Washington and the nation, and mayors are in a unique position to convey that message.”
Smith told the mayors that cuts now taking effect through sequestration moves to limit or repeal tax-exempt municipal bonds, and gouges the community development block grant program.
“The cuts fly in the face of common sense with communities still suffering from slow and anemic job growth,” he said.
Local economies remain vital
According to its work with IHS Global Insight, the Conference’s Metropolitan Economies reports show U.S. cities and their metropolitan areas economies account for more than 90 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, nearly 90 percent of wage and salary income and nearly 86 percent of all jobs.
USCM CEO and Executive Director Tom Cochran added, “Cities and their suburbs drive the national economy, so if Washington chooses to ignore the call of mayors, it does so at the nation’s peril.
“By the end of 2013, only 109 of the nation’s 363 cities and their metro areas will have recovered the jobs lost during the Great Recession,” Cochran said. “We need to invest in, not hinder our metro areas because most of our future economic growth and the vast majority of our Gross Domestic Product will come from them.”
The U.S. Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are 1,295 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the conference by its chief elected official, the mayor.
