Release: National Effort to Re-write Infrastructure Playbook Announced

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE    
Contact: Yusef Robb, 323-384-1789
               Paige Sterling, 614-309-9209

NATIONAL EFFORT TO RE-WRITE NATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE PLAYBOOK ANNOUNCED

LAS VEGAS — The non-profit Accelerator for America announced an effort to create a new “Infrastructure Playbook” at the Moving America Forward presidential candidate forum held on Sunday, February 16, featuring Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Amy Klobuchar, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and Businessman Tom Steyer. The Playbook will be issued following convenings in Phoenix, Oklahoma City, Raleigh, and an Infrastructure Summit in Washington, DC. It will be complete prior to both parties’ national conventions and therefore part of the policy debate leading up to the November election.

Every presidential candidate calls for the creation and passage of a comprehensive infrastructure package to address the more than $2 trillion investment backlog. Any such package must also include a fundamental shift away from the top-down and outmoded federal funding model. Tweaking formulas or adding more money to the existing system won’t deliver the structural change needed to create prosperity, keep America competitive, and improve quality of life for generations of Americans to come.

A new system is needed that recognizes the role of local and state governments in infrastructure planning and funding — one that incentivizes them to generate their own funds based on those priorities so that the federal government follows rather than dictates. It’s time for a system that aligns local and federal priorities through a new “Infrastructure Playbook” for the nation.

The effort was announced in an article co-written by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) and Oklahoma City Mayor David Holt (R).

Local and state governments increasingly serve as significant sources for infrastructure investment. Since 2016 alone, local and state initiatives have secured $522 billion for infrastructure. In 2020, cities and states across the country are seeking to raise an additional $500 billion in infrastructure funding through ballot initiatives. 

To create the new “Infrastructure Playbook,” the Accelerator is working with WSP USA, The U.S. Conference of Mayors, Meridiam NA, Mastercard’s City Possible team, ACEC Research Institute, and HNTB — collectively, the “New Partnership on Infrastructure.”

About Accelerator for America

ACCELERATOR FOR AMERICA finds and develops solutions to economic insecurity and shares them with cities to create national change from the ground up. It was co-founded by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Rick Jacobs in 2017 around the idea that while Washington is broken and has, in fact, been broken for some time, change is still needed and can be made at the local level. The Accelerator has since developed community wealth-building tools that are being used by more than 57 cities nationwide, and it has helped local communities generate $22 billion in funding for transit and transportation infrastructure through local ballot initiatives, with more than $150 billion targeted in 2020. www.acceleratorforamerica.org   

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