In this issue:
Coalition Call on Thursday, September 29th
Federal Policy Update
Livable Communities Act Introduced
Coalition Call Notes 9/8
Reminder: Webinar and materials on positive messaging and dealing with opposition to planning is available on our website
Request for NSP Stories
Coalition Call on Thursday, September 29th
This month’s coalition call will feature Greg LeRoy, Executive Director of Good Jobs First, speaking about some great new resources including a database of company-specific information on economic development subsidies. Read more about it on their blog. The call will be on Thursday, September 29 at 4pm EST on this conference line: 712-432-0111, 668783#.
Federal Policy Update
Last week, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted to preserve funding for the Partnership for Sustainable Communities! No amendments were offered and the program at HUD and DOT are intact!
We must also keep in mind that there is still work to be done to protect funding for these important programs. The bill is not finalized and did included cuts to other valuable programs. We will continue to fight for these important programs as Congress continues its work on the FY2012 funding bills.
With the current fiscal ear ending on Friday, Congress is working on a short-term continuing resolution (CR) fund the federal government through November 18th. Once they pass a CR, the House and the Senate will continue to work on a long term spending bill to fund the government through the rest of FY2012.
When Congress increased the debt limit in July, they created a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to reduce the deficit by at least $1.5 trillion over the next ten years. We anticipate Congress to move short-term appropriations bills that follow roughly the key dates of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction’s deliverables. The Joint Committee must vote by November 23rd on legislative proposals to reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion over the next ten years. If a proposal passes the Joint Committee, Congress has until December 23rd to pass vote on the proposal before across the board spending cuts are triggered on January 15th.
It looks like the Senate Appropriations Committee is not going to mark up a FY2012 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, but instead work toward the continuing resolution.
Livable Communities Act Introduced
Last week, Senator Menendez, from New Jersey, introduced H.R. 1621, the Livable Communities Act to help communities coordinate their housing, land use, and transportation strategies. This legislation will authorize the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities as well as HUD’s Regional Planning and Community Challenge grants. As communities across the country are working to revitalize their downtowns while giving residents housing and transportation choice it is critical to give them the tools to create their vision of future development and growth. These grants and the Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities are a critical part of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. For more information, click here to view the press release.
Coalition Call Notes 9/8
Topic: Robert Liberty Report (Featuring SGA Staff Neha Bhatt and Angel Coleman)
SGA asks: How this information would be most helpful?
Preference for either state summaries that would be optional to share or a best practices document
Need to update data before usable
Consensus that sprawl may be last decade’s issue; we should focus on building healthy economies and frame smart growth as a solution to economic issues
Reminder: Webinar and materials on positive messaging and dealing with opposition to planning is available on our website
As you may remember, we put on a webinar back in July on positive messaging, dealing with opposition during planning processes and community engagement. The recording and materials from our webinar is posted here on our blog. Please take advantage of this resource!
Request for NSP Stories
In light of President Obama’s recently announced jobs bill that includes $15 million for “Project Rebuild,” the National Housing Conference is working on collecting success stories, data and case studies on current NSP/neighborhood revitalization efforts taking place across the country to help shape our advocacy activities around this new initiative.
Please send whatever you’re able to share to cduncan [at] nhc [dot] org and let them know whether it’s all right to share publicly.