Conference of Mayors Stresses Need for New Round of Stimulus Money

[babylonsister]

Conference of Mayors Stresses Need for New Round of Stimulus Money

By IAN URBINA
Published: January 21, 2010


WASHINGTON — Saying that last year’s $787 billion economic stimulus plan has failed to ease urban unemployment, the nation’s mayors are asking the federal government for a second wave of stimulus money.

“We need another stimulus infusion, something that most economists say is the only thing that may turn the unemployment rate around,” said Joseph P. Riley Jr., the mayor of Charleston, S.C., and a Democrat.

More than 230 mayors are in Washington for the winter meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors, and many said they had been forced to impose layoffs, furloughs, service reductions and fee increases to deal with falling municipal revenue. The next fiscal year looks even worse, they said.

“We are in the middle of a ‘jobs emergency’ that demands decisive and swift action,” said Elizabeth Kautz, the mayor of Burnsville, Minn., and president of the conference. “We need the Senate to pass a Main Street jobs package now.”

Mayor Kautz is a Republican, and while many Republicans in Congress oppose a second stimulus package, many of the Republican mayors here support it.

President Obama spoke before dozens of the mayors on Thursday, promising “a continued, sustained and relentless effort to create good jobs.”

more...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/22/us/politics/22mayors.html?ref=us

[Rosa Luxemburg]

1. 'Stimulus for jobs package'

people would support that package!

[babylonsister]

2. Most rethugs wouldn't just on general principle, because that's how they roll. nt

[Rosa Luxemburg]

3. The GOP should be ignored and get on with our agenda