Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Wednesday he has garnered expanded support for a proposal that would boost front-end federal funding for local transportation projects but save the federal government money in the long run.
In a conference call from Washington, D.C., Villaraigosa said he now has support from 104 mayors across the country. He also said he has the backing of U.S. Chamber of Commerce president Thomas Donohue, AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka and Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
Villaraigosa said coalition would like to see funding for the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act tripled from about $122 million to $375 million. He said he plans to meet with Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., tomorrow to talk about getting that number as high as $1 billion.
TIFIA is a program that provides federal guarantees, flexible repayment options and access to private capital markets for large loans that local governments might otherwise not have access to.
Last fall, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transportation Authority was awarded a $546 million TIFIA loan to start construction on an 8.5-mile light rail line from the Crenshaw District to near LAX.
The America Fast Forward program being pushed by Villaraigosa also seeks an increase in the maximum percentage of the funding allotment for projects that TIFIA can finance. Proponents also argue that locking in loans at lower interest rates sooner will make large scale projects cheaper in the long term.
"This is a historic shift in the relationship between federal and local governments," according to Mayor Scott Smith of Mesa, Ariz., who joined Villaraigosa on the conference call. "Public-private partnerships have usually been done on a local level. We're expanding those relationships."
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Supporters say the plan's creative financing would -- in the long term -- dramatically reduce the federal government's traditional funding burden for transportation projects from about 80 percent down to 20 percent.
Villaraigosa said America Fast Forward would also create 1 million jobs, $158 billion in economic output and create $5.8 billion in revenue for California.
The trip is Villaraigosa's second to Washington this month to promote America Fast Forward.
"As mayors of major economic hubs throughout the country, we have put together the construction projects and the dollars to pay for them -- over time," Villaraigosa said. "But time is of the essence now, when early construction of these projects can be done at much lower cost and result in the immediate infusion of higher-paying jobs."
