The Ferguson Group Blog

CPR for our Parks

Congress may be in recess, but we’re continuing to seek cosponsors for the Community Parks Revitalization Act (CPR) (S. 3583) introduced by Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC), which is a companion measure to the Urban Revitalization and Livable Communities Act (URLC) (H.R. 709), introduced by Representative Albio Sires (D-NJ). Once enacted into law,  the bill will authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to provide matching grant funding to local park and recreation agencies, including special park districts, through three grant programs:

 

• Rehabilitation and Construction grants consisting of matching capital grants to rebuild, remodel, expand, or develop existing or new recreational areas or facilities.
•  Innovation and Recreation Program grants consisting of matching grants to cover the costs of delivering innovative recreation programs or services, with a particular focus on increasing access to recreation opportunities for returning veterans, military families, and at-risk youth.
• Recovery Action Program grants consisting of matching grants to cover the costs of developing plans for sustaining projects that received funding through this legislation.

 

Because the introduction of this bill comes at the close of the legislative session it is unlikely to pass in the current session, but cosponsors now are important for building support needed when the legislation is re-introduced in 113^th Congress. Please contact your U.S. Senators to request that they cosponsor S. 3583 or contact TFG for assistance.

And, knowing of your interest in parks, you won’t want to miss this blog post from Stacey Pine, Vice President of Government Affairs at the National Recreation and Park Association.  Stacey does a great job of explaining how the Affordable Care Act impacts park and recreation programs that depend on seasonal workers for success.

 

TFG and Federal Government will Remain Closed on Tuesday the 30th

Due to Hurricane Sandy, both our Washington, DC TFG office and the federal government will remain closed on Tuesday the 30th.  Many of us are without power, but members of the TFG team will do our best to be available throughout the storm and recovery, so please do not hesitate to reach your client manager by email or mobile phone if you have an urgent need.

Additionally, we have postponed the MAC/EPA Webinar scheduled for tomorrow and will make you aware of our new date as soon as it is scheduled.

Hurricane Sandy Closes Federal Government, TFG Offices

Due to Hurricane Sandy, both our Washington, DC TFG office and the federal government are closed on Monday the 29^th.  Members of the TFG team will do our best to be available throughout the storm and recovery,  so please do not hesitate to reach your client manager by email or mobile phone if you have an urgent need. 

I know that many of our blog readers are in a similar situation and, on behalf of the TFG team, we wish you the best over the next 72 hours and beyond and hope that you all stay safe. 

The Heart and Soul of Communities: Will Congress Support Homebuilding and Ownership Through Tax Policy?

Good News!  This week, the US Commerce Department announced new-home sales grew 5.7 percent in September to the highest level in 2 ½ years.  The National Association of Home Builders also announced that builder confidence is at its highest level since June 2008. Let’s hope this community expansion and increased consumer confidence does not slip back into a recession because Congress allows housing tax credits and deductions to expire January 2. 

Will Congress renew the mortgage-debt-forgiveness tax provisions for homeowners whose lenders write off portions of their debt as part of the loan modifications, foreclosures, short sales, or deed-in-lieu-of-foreclosure? Without an extension, borrowers who receive reductions in principal next year would be hit with federal income taxes at their regular marginal rates on the amounts forgiven.  Will there continue to be deductions for mortgage insurance premiums, tax benefits for homeowners who install energy-savings improvements, tax credits for builders of energy-efficient houses, and the extension of current relief for middle-income taxpayers from the alternative minimum tax (AMT)?  The lame duck session will impact millions of homeowners and your communities and we’ll continue to track these issues and provide updates.

Health Care Discussion Shifts to Future of Medicaid

While the Presidential candidates spent much of the summer, following the selection of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as the Republican nominee for Vice President, focused mainly on the future of Medicare in the next few years, the conversation has quickly turned to a discussion of Medicaid, the federal-state partnership that provides health care to low-income Americans.  The growth in Medicaid spending at the state and federal levels has been cited as the basis for an urgent need to reform the program. 

The Obama Administration pushed through major incentives for states to expand their programs to increase coverage (for more people and with broader benefits).  Gov. Romney has proposed capping expenditures and allowing states more freedom to design their own programs. The President says you achieve more cost savings by making people healthier through increased preventative care, while Gov. Romney believes we can decrease costs by capping benefits and eligibility. 

A study released yesterday by the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured and Health Management Associates noted that cost increases are actually decreasing.  They report that total aggregate Medicaid spending from all the states barely increased, only 2 percent for the previous fiscal year.  States have been very aggressive in cutting their own costs, especially their rates of reimbursement of medical care.  Several states actually curtailed eligibility to slow the growth in enrollees.  Ironically, 18 states restricted eligibility but still increased overall spending (the number of enrollees would likely have been astronomically high had that not happened).  Still, maintenance of effort requirements under the Medicaid program places a cap on the types of restrictions states can provide (eliminating swings in coverage for current enrollees).   Overall nationwide enrollment, the study found, grow at the lowest rate since the current recession hit in 2008 (3.2%).  The Supreme Court’s decision on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act eliminated somewhat mandatory Medicaid expansion, placing the future of the program in doubt by some opponents. 

Rebuilding Waterways and Repairing How They Are Funded

Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) announced yesterday that he and others will introduce "The American Waterways Act" when Congress resumes its session after the November election. The draft bill would tackle some financially challenging issues because the Inland Waterways Trust Fund (river system) and the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund (seaports) are at the center of current problems facing commercial navigation in the U.S.

The IWTF, with collections from a vessel fuel tax, raises insufficient funds for the large, unmet demand for lock and dam construction and rehab work. As a partial remedy the users of the river system have proposed changes in cost-sharing as well as increases in the fuel tax paid by vessel operators, both approaches endorsed by Alexander.

The HMTF is a problem of a different kind. The ad valorem tax on cargo raises sufficient funds but Congress has not appropriated O&M funds at a rate commensurate with collections even though the need for channel maintenance is far greater than is being satisfied. The planned bill is expected to tackle both the annual appropriations levels as well as what to do with the accumulating surplus--now above $7 billion--in the HMTF.

Among the other provisions expected in the bill are ones to shift the 50/50 cost-sharing requirement for maintenance to channel projects that are deeper than 50 feet, open the HMTF to landside port projects, free up IWTF monies for other waiting projects by making the increasingly expensive Olmsted Lock project on the Ohio River a fully Federal responsibility, and adopt a MAP-21 approach to regulatory and permit process streamlining.  

The bill sponsors are expected to be from both parties and on the basis of early signs will include Lamar Alexander, Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and possibly Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). Part of the challenge in drafting the legislation is the high hurdle of congressional budget rules. The outline of the bill suggests the need for approving billions in spending beyond current levels. Even if the revenues can handle that Congress may be asked to waive budget rules, which rarely happens without a fight.

Why are senators talking about introducing a controversial reform bill soon before the 112th Congress comes to a close? There are several answers, one of which is that the House and Senate are preparing to tackle major fiscal and revenue decisions (see "fiscal cliff") and resolving the navigation trust fund problems could be made a bit easier as part of the larger debate.     

 

USDOT is Listening for Your Input Today

In case you haven’t heard, the U.S. Department of Transportation is hosting a listening session today on Traffic Congestion and the National Highway System Performance.  If you’re not based in DC, your voice can still be heard, so plan to participate remotely today from 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM eastern. The event will be streamed live, participants will have an opportunity to contribute via a live chat room, and a USDOT moderator will share selected chat room contributions with the in-person audience.  To receive a link to the webcast, simply click here. One of the key issues that interests USDOT is the impact of regional differences,  a topic about which our local government colleagues may have quite a bit to say.   

Wednesday News Roundup

Every Wednesday, The Ferguson Group blog will be posting a series of articles published over the previous week that discuss topics of interest to local governments. Learn about emerging trends and keep up on key policy issues by browsing the TFG Wednesday News Roundup!

Milwaukee Police Give 911 a Facelift

A Milwaukee Police Chief has a new way to respond to crime, and it doesn’t involve the police coming to you.  Differential Police Response (DPR) allows officers to respond to certain grievances via the phone, allowing them more time to patrol “hotspot” areas.  Read More…

Some in Congress Look to $55 Billion Fiscal Cliff ‘Fallback’

Some in Congress would like to avoid the upcoming “fiscal cliff,” large cuts in the federal government, by scrapping the across-the-board spending cuts of $109 billion and replacing them with targeted savings of $55 billion.  Read more…

In Fairfax County, Sequestration is Already Here

The possibility of more than $1 trillion in mandatory federal spending cuts is already taking a toll in Fairfax County.  While communities across the country are dreading the cuts, the threat looks especially ominous to Fairfax County, where a lot of residents have jobs that depend--either directly or indirectly--on the Federal government.  Read more…

Study Touts Job Potential of ‘Smart’ Infrastructure

A report put out by Deloitte Consulting and the New England Council states that investments in “smart” infrastructure have the potential to create 27,000 new jobs in New England alone.  “Smart” infrastructure includes transportation systems, diversified energy sources, access to high-speed internet, a skilled work force, and appropriate financing.  The report offers eight recommendations for building “smart” infrastructure.  Read more…

Dedicated Bike Lanes Can Cut Cycling Injuries in Half

New research shows that dedicated bike lanes can cut in half the rates of injury for cyclists, with protected bike lanes nearly eliminating the risk of injury.  Read more…

 

Nation Building at Home

During last night’s debate, the President outlined an ambitious goal -- to divert money that was originally marked for nation building in Afghanistan and Iraq for nation building at home instead.  The President believes that “money that we’ve been spending on war over the last decade [should be spent] to rebuild American, roads, bridges, [and] schools.”  This plan calls for almost doubling the annual spending on transportation and infrastructure.  Most of the $800 billion in future war savings would be used for deficit reduction, but a substantial amount, approximately $230 billion, would be allocated towards the President’s $476 billion six-year transportation bill proposal and $50 billion in new stimulus.

The idea of a “peace dividend” has been suggested in the past, but there is a difference this time.  In 1992, after the Gulf War, the idea of using savings from the war for other projects was suggested.  In the past, wars had been financed through war bonds or raised revenues.  Starting in the twenty-first century, the Country has used deficit funding to finance wars.  Requests for war expenditures were separate from the Defense Department’s yearly budget requests.  Thus, there is now a question of whether prioritizing domestic infrastructure in this manner is a reallocation of war spending or new deficit spending.  Congressional Republicans are not buying the new characterization of spending.  One Senator called it “debt on arrival.”  Republican vice presidential candidate, and Wisconsin Congressman, Paul Ryan called the idea a “war gimmick.”  The Senate’s ranking member on the Budget Committee, Jeff Sessions, noted that the spending did not have a “pay-for in a realistic sense.” 

The issue of how to pay for these needs will be subject to much debate, but with our domestic infrastructure in such disrepair,  there is no debate about the need for significant investments in this area.

DOT Funding Anti-Texting Programs in Massachusetts and Connecticut

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) recently announced a $550,000 grant for “high-visibility anti-texting enforcement programs” in Massachusetts and Connecticut to develop and train police officers on better methods for spotting drivers who are texting, and to develop media techniques that alert the public to the dangers of texting and driving. The results of these two new demonstrations will be documented for the benefit of other states which are facing the same challenges.

Currently, there are 39 states that have laws that specifically ban texting and 10 states with laws that prohibit the use of handheld cell phones while driving. Despite such laws, prior DOT demonstration programs conducted in Connecticut and New York found that it was more challenging for law enforcement to detect a driver texting behind the wheel compared to drivers talking on a handheld device. While state and local law enforcement agencies agree texting and handheld bans are both critical, texting bans by themselves can be difficult to enforce, thus more data is needed on effective ways to enforce the ban.

Authorized by Congress under the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21), the grant program provided funds in FY 2013 to states that have enacted and are enforcing anti-distracted driving laws, including anti-texting statutes.  To qualify, a state must have had a comprehensive, primary law against distracted driving or a primary law prohibiting texting while driving, which allows law enforcement personnel to stop violators solely for distracted driving.  States with secondary laws, which require law enforcement to observe a primary offense prior to enforcing the distraction law, were not eligible.