MILWAUKEE, WI – This morning, Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley joined Hennepin County Board Chair Marion Greene, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, Franklin County Commissioner John O’Grady, and King County Executive Dow Constantine for a virtual press conference about the historic investments and generational impacts for local communities and families that would be made available through passage of the President’s Build Back Better Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.
County leaders emphasized how the one-in-a once-in-a-generation investments in both human infrastructure and traditional infrastructure will help create jobs and their communities move forward in their journey to achieve racial equity. A Zoom recording of the full conference is available here.
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“The President’s Build Back Better Agenda is a massive piece of federal support that will create jobs, cut taxes, lower costs for working families, and help Milwaukee County move forward towards our vision of achieving racial equity and becoming the healthiest county in the state,” said Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley. “The Building Back Better agenda makes investments in directly into community cornerstones, local economies, and our workforce. This helps us make investments in equity to reverse generations of disinvestments and provide the resources necessary to meet our residents needs and allow them to live in diverse and inclusive communities.”
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“This moment, this opportunity, is why it is so important for Congress to pass the Build Back Better Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan. We know that investment in comprehensive infrastructure, in our roads, transit, rail, and our waterways, is what we need to move us all forward,” said King County Executive Dow Constantine for Washington State. “The investments made in Build Back Better and the Infrastructure Plan will not only improve, sustain, and upgrade critical infrastructure across Washington, and the entire nation, but will also make our economy more sustainable, resilient, and equitable. It will create millions of jobs and people who have not opportunity in the past will be able to build a secure economic future for themselves and their families.”
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“What is being proposed in the Build Back Better plan will be transformational for our country. In particular, I want to highlight the importance of the child tax credit for families in Franklin County.” said Franklin County Commissioner John O’Grady of Ohio. “Before the pandemic Franklin County’s poverty rate was nearly 17 percent overall, 30 percent for African Americans, and 25 percent for children. As we doubled down on local efforts to address the root causes of these challenges, the child tax credit provides historic relief to working families and would be a powerful tool in lifting millions of children out of poverty if made permanent and fully inclusive.”
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“I am really excited about the opportunity to expand and improve transit. Here in Shelby County we have about 20,000 riders a day on our transit system, but there is a demand service by twice as much ridership. We have 16,000 open jobs in Shelby County, and when we surveyed job seekers on why they weren’t applying for open jobs, the number one reason was the need for transportation,” said Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris of Tennessee. “Those issues have only worsened with the pandemic and the labor shortage in all of our communities. Transit is one of those ways we respond and help people get a job, get to work, and return home in time for dinner.”
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“This legislation is crucial to our work on racial disparities. We realize that racial disparities drive county business and we’re committed to reversing that trend. Everything we do, all Hennepin County work is addressed with a racial disparity lens. We want to make sure that all of our residents have equal and equitable access to the supports we offer and the opportunities to thrive and live their fullest lives,” said Hennepin County Chair Marion Green of Minnesota. “When the President talks about Building Back Better, here in Hennepin County that means building back communities through a commitment to race equity. I’m very grateful for the federal partnership on this and so pleased to see President Biden prioritizing this at every level in the administration’s work as well.”
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“We can’t forget about the child tax credit extension. We know that an increase to the credit from $2,000 to $3,000 per child, and $3,600 for those under age six, made a tremendous difference. We’ve seen the results and we’ve seen what happens when we invest in families and ensure they have everything they need to take care of their children,” said Montgomery County Councilmember Craig Rice of Maryland. “We’ve got to make this credit fully refundable, allow the credit to be issued in the form of advance monthly payments, and increase the eligibility from 16 to 17. These are all things that make sense for us because we are taking care of our next generation.”
