Mayors concerned about Bush economic plan

By Deborah Charles

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – America’s mayors, who are on the front lines of the U.S. war on terrorism, said on Thursday they were concerned that President Bush’s proposed economic recovery package would not really address their needs.

At the end of an Emergency, Safety and Security Summit of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, president Marc Morial expressed the group’s concerns about the multibillion-dollar stimulus package that is still being debated in Congress.

“While this nation’s mayors have great respect for the president’s leadership during this time of national crisis, after two days of deliberations with local public safety and health officials, we have concluded that we must … express our concerns with the proposed $60 billion economic recovery package,” Morial said.

“It is a package, we believe, which fails to address the kinds of security needs we have identified,” added Morial, the mayor of New Orleans.

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a stimulus plan that would inject $100 billion into the economy over the next year — $25 billion more than Bush believed was needed to help the economy recover from the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Senate is still debating its version of the plan, which would likely be around $60 billion to $75 billion.

Local needs must be addressed in the plan, Morial said, outlining a national action plan for safety and security in America’s cities which was approved at the summit.

“Our plan recognizes that we are in a precarious situation,” Morial said. “We are facing the combination of an already weakened national economy, job layoffs and consumer anxieties created by the terrorist attacks and rapidly rising public safety and security costs.”

“This terrible combination threatens the ability of local governments to meet some of their most basic obligations.”

Morial said the mayors believe the United States needs a “balanced recovery plan” that addresses both tax relief and security investments.

“The front lines in our cities are defended by 650,000 police officers and thousands more firefighters, emergency responders and public health professionals,” Morial said. “To do the job, they need the kind of support that can come only from our federal government; they need the level of resources that is available only from our federal government.”

The economic package approved by the House aims to help the economy through business tax breaks and checks for workers who did not receive earlier tax rebates.

A draft summary of the mayors’ national action plan urged only short-term tax provisions — 12-18 months — that were directly targeted to stimulating the economy.

Among those they supported would be a lifting of the cap on state and local tax exempt bonds to spur stalled development and doubling the allocation of low income housing tax credits.

The mayors said they supported giving the newly created office of Homeland Security the authority needed to focus federal resources on the cities which they said have become the front lines in the domestic war on terrorism.

Asking for help to pay for heightened security in their cities, the mayors called for a new flexible local security block grant to be set up under the direction of the Office of Homeland Security. They said the funds could be used to train rescue workers, upgrade equipment and improve security measures for airports, waterways and other public infrastructure.

They also called for improved coordination and communication between federal, state and local law enforcement organizations.