U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey, N.Y.-18, was in Tarrytown Sept. 7 to recognize a public works project that created the equivalent of 131 full-time jobs and to call for additional infrastructure investment.
Lowey highlighted the need for a national infrastructure bank to be enacted both as a means of repairing aging roads, bridges and waterways nationwide and of putting unemployed Americans back to work.
“The infrastructure bank is an outstanding idea,” Lowey told the Business Journal. “It will direct federal funding to projects that have the most merit and that will create the most jobs.”
Her plan calls for a national infrastructure bank to provide loans, bonds and startup capital to finance critical projects.
She cited the Full Water Supply Project, a venture between the villages of Briarcliff Manor, Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow to consolidate the local fresh water supply, that received $18.9 million from the federal Recovery Act and generated some 66,000 working hours ”“ or the equivalent of more than 131 full-time positions.
“There are great local examples ”¦ of how repairing our aging infrastructure creates jobs.”
According to a release from Lowey”™s office, every $1 billion invested in infrastructure creates at least 30,000 jobs and generates more than $6 billion of economic activity.
In President Obama”™s Sept. 8 address when he unveiled his American Jobs Act, he called for Congress to enact legislation that would provide for repairs to the nation”™s highways, bridges, railways and schools.
Lowey said the president”™s proposal would likely be broken down into several pieces of legislation and she hoped for one to include a national infrastructure bank.
William Mooney, president of the Westchester County Association, said he would support any measure that promises to create jobs ”“ so long as any funding is spent responsibly.
“Anything that creates jobs, I”™m for,” Mooney said. “It”™s got to be a very targeted kind of thing ”“ and very competitive too ”“ that would help us to provide clean energy, new technology, a better transportation system, and get people to work.”
Mooney and Marissa Brett, executive director of economic development for the WCA, said one area where Westchester could use the funding is to develop a stronger broadband wireless network, particularly as business leaders hope to draw more technology-oriented companies to the county.
