Sen. Sherrod Brown: Dem plan would rebuild nation's infrastructure
YOUNGSTOWN
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown used the $15.5 million Youngstown SMAR2T Corridor proposal as an example of a project that would be funded under an overall Senate Democratic plan to rebuild and repair the country’s infrastructure.
“Rebuilding American infrastructure will put Ohioans to work on projects like this one,” Brown, a Cleveland Democrat, said Friday. “We can create jobs building the roads, transit and broadband systems that will support our 21st century economy.”
The proposal is to initiate a conversation on President Donald Trump’s campaign statements to invest $1 trillion in the nation’s infrastructure.
Brown said he knows the Republican president won’t accept the Senate Democrats’ proposal at face value and that there is already resistance from the chamber’s GOP majority to investing in infrastructure.
“The Democrats in the Senate have offered a plan that includes housing; it includes public transit for buses and public transit routes; it includes money for highways and bridges and airports and unique projects like this [SMAR2T Corridor] project in the Mahoning Valley,” Brown said. “This is exactly what the public wants, and it’s exactly what the president talked about in his campaign, and we want to deliver on it.”
Brown added that the Senate Democratic plan is a “good faith effort” to get the conversation started on an infrastructure program.
The proposal includes requiring the “Buy America” provision to all taxpayer-funded public works and infrastructure projects to support American manufacturing and domestic jobs, $210 billion for road and bridge repairs, $200 billion for projects of critical national significance, $110 billion to modernize outdated water and sewer systems, $130 billion to replace and expand rail and bus systems, $100 billion for affordable housing, eliminating blight and addressing lead hazards, and $75 billion to help modernize schools.
The plan includes $10 billion for the federal Transportation Investment Generating Economy Recover [TIGER] program.
The U.S. Department of Transportation rejected Youngstown’s SMAR2T grant proposal last year for TIGER funding because of a lack of funding.
It was among 230 proposals to be highly rated by the DOT, but wasn’t among the 40 receiving funding.
The proposal included investments in public transportation, bike lanes and pedestrian improvements to link downtown, Youngstown State University, Eastern Gateway Community College and St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.
The project would make it easier for YSU and EGCC students in the health science fields to travel to and from St. Elizabeth for clinical training sessions and make it easier for hospital employees to get to classes at the two schools to further their educations, said Don Koenig, Mercy Hospital Youngstown’s executive vice president and regional chief operating officer.
The proposal will be resubmitted in some form once the DOT seeks requests for funding, Mayor John A. McNally said.