The Ferguson Group Blog

Wednesday News Roundup

Every Wednesday, the TFG Blog posts a series of articles published over the previous week that discusses topics of interest to local governments. Learn about emerging trends and keep up on key policy issues by browsing the TFG Wednesday News Roundup!

White House Creates New Cybersecurity Agency

On Tuesday, the White House announced the creation of a new agency designed to combat cyber threats and to coordinate digital intelligence among federal agencies. The $35 million Cyber Threat Intelligence Integration Center is designed to "connect the dots" among cyber threats facing the United States, "so that relevant departments and agencies are aware of these threats in as close to real time as possible," a White House official said in a statement. Read more...

Why Boston is Spending $20M on Affordable Housing

Boston has announced a $20 million affordable housing project that will redevelop 250 city-owned parcels of land into housing specifically for low- to middle-income families. The strategy is to help maintain affordability while infilling vacant land in urban neighborhoods. Read more...

Restoring the Concrete Jungle: How to Address Urban Blight in 2015

Reducing blight and preventing its spread is best achieved when the solution incorporates the interest and input of active and engaged citizens. Many cities are starting to harness innovative civic tech products to begin repairing and rebuilding some of the country’s most severely affected areas with help from residents. Read more...

NYC’s Plan for Free, Citywide Wi-Fi

Private companies are paying New York City $500 million to transform old pay phones into high-speed Internet hotspots. The plan is called LinkNYC, and it’s important for two reasons. One, it may be a plan other cities can copy -- there are certainly plenty of old public pay phones around. Two, it’s an example of reimagining old assets and connecting citizens to what is increasingly a vital and life-enhancing service: the Internet. Read more...

An Interactive Gathering for City Leaders

On February 11-12, Louisville will host the Governing Summit for Innovation, a meeting that will convene city leaders to discuss how to get more out of less through synergy and innovation. What makes the gathering unique is that every detail of the meeting, from the room setup to the discussion, is intentionally interactive and challenging. While this event is sold out because of the unique set up of the accommodations and the “everyone participates” format, those who are interested should make a note and watch Governing for similar opportunities in the future. Read more...

Investing in Rural Economic Development

On January 23, the USDA Rural Utilities Services (RUS) announced the list of Rural Electric Corporations that have been awarded Rural Economic Development Loans and Grants (REDLG).  RUS provides loans and grants to rural businesses and electric coops to help create jobs and spur economic development. Utilities can apply for loans up to $2,000,000 or grants up to $300,000. These investments help businesses expand and rural communities grow their economies. The full list of award recipients can be found here. 

TFG congratulates all of the recipients!

Economic Development Assistance Programs Funding Opportunity

Today, the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) publish its FY 2014 Economic Development Assistance Programs Federal Funding Opportunity.
 
EDA is soliciting applications from rural and urban areas to provide investments that support construction, non-construction, technical assistance, and revolving loan fund projects under EDA’s Public Works and Economic Adjustment Assistance programs.

Grants and cooperative agreements made under these programs are designed to leverage existing regional assets and support the implementation of economic development strategies that advance new ideas and creative approaches to advance economic prosperity in distressed communities.
 
The first funding cycle of FY 2014 is covered under EDA’s FY 2013 funding and the next four funding cycle deadlines are:

·         December 13, 2013 for funding cycle 2 of FY 2014;
·         March 14, 2014 for funding cycle 3 of FY 2014;
·         June 13, 2014 for funding cycle 4 of FY 2014; and
·         October 17, 2014 for funding cycle 1 of FY 2015.

For more information go to: http://www.grants.gov/web/grants/search-grants.html.

USDA Promoting Farm Bill Benefits

The USDA is ramping up its social media campaign to tout the benefits of Farm Bill-authorized programs, especially as they promote job growth and retention and advance agricultural research around the nation. They are inviting stakeholders to help drive this social media campaign by using the hashtag #MyFarmBill and asking them to share stories of how the #MyFarmBill impacts them.  Twitter, Facebook,, Instagram, YouTube, and others. A guide to suggested methods can be gleaned from videos, photos and tweets that you can view here. The current Farm Bill expired in September but it's impact has been staggered. Dairy farmers have raised the ire of impending increases in mike prices, what they call the "dairy cliff."  USDA programs will slowly shut down in the absence of a Farm Bill exptension or full scale reauthorization.  

Vrooom… Fueling Economic Development in Auto Communities

On September 4^th the EPA released a report for communities affected by the recent restructuring of the U.S. auto industry. The “Roadmap for Auto Community Revitalization” report highlights successful case studies of auto communities that have reinvigorated their local economies and provides information on sources of funding and technical assistance currently available to communities with historical ties to the automotive industry. This document is the result of the combined efforts of a partnership between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization (OBLR), the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers, and the Manufacturing Alliance of Communities (formerly the Mayors Automotive Coalition (MAC)), which is a coalition created and managed by The Ferguson Group.

 

There are many success stories of federal support, some of which are detailed in the Roadmap document.  For example, the EPA’s Brownfields and Land Revitalization Program, has provided support to auto communities to assist them with their revitalization efforts, and is making investments to help promote environmental health and economic development.  Since the program’s inception, EPA’s Brownfields Program investments have provided more than $20 billion in cleanup and redevelopment.  In addition, federal investment has created more than 90,000 jobs from both public and private sources through this program.  Success stories include: the City of Flint, MI which diversified its economy with new industries; and Fremont, California where the Tesla Motor Company took over a 50-year-old former GM facility to produce the Tesla Model S and other models that minimize air pollution.

Will Waterfronts be Tomorrow’s Mainstreets?

Waterfronts and ports in particular, continue to gain attention in Washington, where they are viewed as increasingly integral to the economic development and sustainability of their surrounding communities. A new bill, “The Waterfront of Tomorrow Act,” was announced on July 30th by Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez (D-NY). While the bill’s focus is to help protect New York City from future floods, the bill will need the support of port cities across the nation and has been designed to have nationwide appeal.

If passed, the bill would incorporate ports and harbors into the National Freight Policy provisions included in MAP-21; it would establish a state and local grant program within the Economic Development Administration to establish environmentally sustainable waterfront areas; and it would allow the Environmental Protrection Agency and the U.S. Maritime Administration to jointly establish a “Green Port” designation, which would be accompanied by federal grant funding and technical assistance.

Re-framing waterfronts as tomorrow’s mainstreets is what this bill is all about. The Congresswoman is initially looking at seeking support from California and New Jersey members to build the momentum needed to gain nationwide support. If your community has a waterfront, this is a bill to watch.

“Blank Slate” Tax Reform Threatens Muni Bond Tax Exemption: Contact Your Senators!

Late last week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Ranking Member Orrin Hatch circulated  a letter to fellow Senators on their proposed “blank slate” plan, essentially a tax reform proposal that would start over with a "blank slate" by eliminating all tax breaks and lowering tax rates for both individuals and corporations alike. In doing so, so the draft “blank slate” proposal would eliminate the exclusion for municipal bond interest.

Chairman Baucus and Ranking Member Hatch have asked Senators to submit proposals to them on what provisions they would like to see added to this draft tax code, so Senators would have to convince Chairman Baucus and Ranking Member Hatch to add the municipal bond exclusion (or any other exclusion or deduction) back. If this or any other proposal to eliminate the exemption for municipal bonds is enacted,  it would significantly drive up state and local borrowing costs for infrastructure projects.  A recent report shows that if this exemption had been fully eliminated, in the past decade it would have cost local governments $495 billion and stalled essential infrastructure projects.

Take a few minutes to reach out to your Senators and  encourage them to urge the retention of the current law for exclusion of municipal bond interest.

House HUD Funding Bill Deals a Blow to Key Programs, Outlook Better in the Senate

Earlier this week, the House Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee approved its FY 2014 appropriations bill. The full Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider the bill on June 27. The bill includes $28.5 billion for HUD, $5 billion, or 15 percent, less than the FY 2013 enacted level and $3 billion, or 9 percent, less than the FY 2013 post-sequestration funding level.

Community Development Block Grant formula funding would be decreased by almost 45 percent to $1.6 billion.  Overall, funding for Community Development Programs would be cut by $1.9 billion from FY 2013 to $4.8 billion, which is $1.6 billion below the spending level under sequestration. It would eliminate funds for new "sustainable" or "green" community development programs. The bill would fully fund veterans housing vouchers at $75 million, but would cut Section 8 and public housing overall by $953 million to $24.9 billion. Families expected to hold vouchers at the beginning of FY 2014 would continue to receive assistance. Housing for the disabled and for the elderly would be funded at levels requested by the Administration at $126 million and $374.6 million respectively.

Senator Nelson: Our CDBG Communities Need More Flexibility

In the coming weeks, our Country’s Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) entitlement communities will receive their fiscal year 2013 formula funding allocations. In case you’re not familiar with how this program benefits your community, CDBG provides annual grants on a formula basis to entitled cities and counties to provide improved housing and expand economic opportunities  for low- and moderate-income persons. 

In response to many communities’ desire for increased flexibility in the use of their CDBG allocations, Senator Bill Nelson of Florida last week introduced the Community Development Block Grant Public Services Flexibility Act of 2013, S. 855. This bill would give local governments more flexibility to spend their CDBG funding on basic public services for the most vulnerable people in their communities. Currently, local governments can only spend a maximum of 15 percent of their CDBG funding on these vital services. This legislation would raise the cap to 25 percent so that grant recipients can have more flexibility in addressing the needs of their communities.

If your community would benefit from this flexibility, consider asking your Senator to cosponsor S. 855.

DOT to Host TIGER 5 Webinars

Last week my colleague Mike Miller wrote about the release of the TIGER 5 NOFA and some of the key elements pertaining to the grant. For those of you who intend to submit your applications by the June 3rd deadline, we strongly recommend that you join one or both of the online webinars the Department of Transportation (DOT) is hosting!

On May 3rd at 2:00 p.m. EDT, DOT will conduct an hour long webinar on TIGER application preparation and guidance. To sign up for this webinar, click here.

On May 6th at 1:00 p.m. EDT, DOT will host its second webinar on benefit cost analysis guidance for TIGER 5. To sign up for this webinar, click here.

I personally participated in the TIGER 4 webinars that DOT hosted last year and found them extremely informative and helpful. I also heard similar feedback from others.

Keep in mind space is limited, so sign up today!