News

4:00PM EST

ATTENDANCE
Rayla Bellis, Devon Barnhart, Edie Constable – SGA
Brendan McEntee – National Complete Streets Coalition
Rebecca Davis – Metropolitan Area Planning Council
Alia Anderson – Reconnecting America
Kevin Doyle – Livable Communities Coalition
Gene Krebs – Greater Ohio
Jay Corbalis – New Jersey Future
Jackie Grimshaw – Center for Neighborhood Technology

FEDERAL POLICY UPDATES (Devon)

• Congress came back into session this week; they have mostly been working on committee positions.
• Lame duck session is coming up. Smart Growth-related issues probably will not come up.
• Appropriations – Spending will probably be held at the same levels.
• Surface transportation bill will likely be extended, either for six months or a year. Senate wants 6 months. Aviation programs will likely get extended, as will tax cuts.
• Current session to end in mid-December.
• Bills coming up: Transportation, Housing or GSE reform (SGA has been working with White House), Farm bill, Tax bills (none looking helpful), Energy bill (expect one that will be very different from what we would have wanted from the last congress)

MIDTERM ELECTION WRAP-UP (Devon)

• Devon to send out follow-up information with new leadership and committee roles.
• We will know more about targets when committees are finalized, probably around January

Action: Contact Devon if you would like more information about elections, committees, and upcoming bills.
Action: Contact Devon/Elisa if you have good relationships with any of new leadership.

WORK WITH PARTNERSHIP (Devon)

• SGA is reaching out to everyone who applied or was interesting in applied for grants from the EPA/HUD/DOT partnership. SGA wants to build a group of advocates to support partnership (which will likely be under attack in new congress; we expect cuts in funding). We want to show that this partnership and these programs are working.
• Look out for webinars, and fly-in, technical assistance for interested organizations
• Look for partnership email. We want to be most helpful in supporting partnership.

CLIMATE REPORT (Rayla Bellis)

• Working with NRDC and Friends of the Earth.
• Last month, SGA sent out a memo with details and tentative release date. SGA is pushing the release date back to Wednesday, December 8th. Goal is to get coalition members materials for release by Monday after Thanksgiving.

***Jackie is interested in releasing report.

REMINDERS

• Economic prosperity sourcebook is on coalition website as a resource. A webinar discussing its uses is available on coalition website. It can be found under the research/resources tab on the website. Contact Rayla for more information.
  • Question: What are the limitations on the use of that document?
  • Answer: It is more to be used as a sourcebook, not powerpoint. Contact Elizabeth Schilling (eschilling@smartgrowthamerica.org).
• New Partners for Smart Growth Conference
  • The conference will be held in Charlotte, NC this year, Feb. 3 – 5th.
  • Anticipated attendees:
    • Kevin (Atlanta): Ray Christman might attend
    • Alia: Reconnecting America has several panelists.
    • Jackie: people for her group might be going, she might not
    • Gene: Legislative session might conflict. Governor-elect will announce budget two months before normal, which will occur around that time.

PARTNER UPDATES

• Kevin
  • Working on transit and transportation.
  • They have a date certain for election in August in 2012. Met with group that will pick projects (to back up language on ballot).
  • DOT has designated target allocations for different modes, up to 60% for transit and transit operations and maintenance. Target allocations are equally strong for roads / road maintenance.
  • Working with a group of people for a statewide statute for land banking.
  • Working on educating newly-elected (mainly Republican) leaders.
  • Response: Gene did a land bank legislation last year. Contact Dawn to learn how they put together their coalition (that included Frank Alexander), and got something passed by a Republican senate and Democrat governor.
• Gene
  • Transportation – The state will release a Fix-It-First study that should have come out last year.
  • Creating/recommending better data compilation to advise administrations and local governments on data policy impacts.
  • Still picking up pieces after huge Republican wins in Ohio (Republicans now dominate apportionment boards where they will write new districts. He fears that Republicans will rewrite district lines and will dominate for the next ten years).
  • They will talk about smart growth in terms of government reform. Messaging smart growth will be a huge issue. Rob Portman might be reasonable (they have no relationship with him, but we should pursue a conversation with his staff early and often). They are trying to work on messaging that frames smart growth as an advantage.
• Question: Is 3C railway dead?
• Answer: Yes, Democrats ruined messaging. They did not put the issue in a fiscal standpoint (that subsidies for rail would have been a good investment versus subsidies for roads). Not enough transit in cities. Also Republicans viewed rail as connected to White House, and so they took it down. Now Republicans feel “guilty” about transit, so plan to try to get Republicans to support intra-city transit. Congress will try to pull rail money back.

REMINDER: THERE WILL BE NO COALITION CALL NEXT MONTH BECAUSE OF THE HOLIDAYS. WE WILL RESUME IN JANUARY.