The wide experiential level of the participants in this round-robin sharing of ideas occurred on Thursday, May 18 '23, 9:30 AM at the Brookings and carried online. Adie Tomer led the group that represented the state and local agencies tasked to implement the Biden bills on infrastructure specifically and concretely in their regions.
The panel consisted of Hon. Jane Caster, Mayor of Tampa, Florida; Judith Dangerfield, Policy Link; Blair Levin, New Street Research; and Shelley Poticha, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).
Mayor of Tampa since 2019, Hon. Caster recognized the humongous number of projects funding in the area of water and waste water treatment outstanding; the multitudinous concerning transportation issues in need of city and private funding. She observed that there must be considerable time given to planning, let alone, the time spent in doing each project. She recognized that low cost/high impact ones are likely to be done first so as to benefit the local communities.
She urged to make each one collaborative in effort by those living in the neighborhoods that will benefit from the project. These neighborhoods should be in on the planning, the innovation, and the construction of the new infrastructure.
Mr. Tomer raised the point that it must be clear what groups are to sign off as to the successful completion of each project undertaken.
Ms. Poticha stressed navigating the funding streams to assure sufficient resources for each project, because of citizen needs involved.
Another point: the new project should bring about greater social equity in the town among citizenry. Once the project is completed, taxes on the improved land should not be such as to drive those living there out.
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