Local government officials are often asked, “What keeps you awake at night?” With an up-and-down economy in recent years, the Great Recession, declining tax revenues and widening budget gaps, there’s no shortage of answers to that question.
The nation’s mayors were recently surveyed regarding the most important, and most challenging, issues their respective cities are facing. The results of this year’s Menino Survey of Mayors were recently released during the annual U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting. Not surprisingly, there was a commonality among many of their responses.
Cities have often been described as the heart of the nation’s economy. And mayors are among the hardest-working of public officials at any level of government because they spend a lot of time on the front lines and in the trenches of city government. Now, many cities are struggling to meet the social and economic challenges of economic growth. Many also are seeing burgeoning populations that are creating an additional strain on city resources.
Almost half of the responding mayors agreed that most of their sleepless nights are related to concerns about their cities’ infrastructure. And they also agree that those concerns are exacerbated by the lack of state and federal financial support for infrastructure projects. Funding for both maintenance and new construction projects is woefully inadequate. However, they also do not look to the state and federal governments to bail them out anytime soon. In fact, most of the mayors surveyed said they have lost confidence that upper levels of government will help provide for their needs.
The top infrastructure projects that need financial infusions, according to most heads of local government, are roads, mass transit, water, wastewater and stormwater. Many such projects – because of their size and big price tags – lack necessary funding. Other infrastructure needs in cities, according to mayors surveyed, include facilities and city buildings, parks, broadband, energy, bicycle friendliness, bridges, waste and airports.
Given that most roadways in cities are already established for large cities, mayors in those municipalities say if they had enough funding for one project on their “wish list,” their priority project would be one that could help move citizens along those roads while helping mitigate traffic congestion – mass transit. Smaller cities indicate they would dedicate the funding to roads first, followed by city buildings and then water, wastewater and stormwater needs.
When asked how they would allocate a small infusion of cash into use for infrastructure needs, both small and large cities agreed – bike and pedestrian projects, followed by parks.
While the Survey of Mayors reveals that most “partners” on infrastructure projects with cities are other government entities – particularly state government – those numbers could be somewhat skewed because some infrastructure projects are required by law, regulation or function to include other government entities as partners. But there is a growing interest in partnering with the private business community, because of “the enthusiasm that some mayors have for public-private partnerships (P3s) in local policy.”
City officials surveyed noted that the area in which they would most likely partner with the business community is economic development, with education projects ranked second. Other projects for possible P3s between the business community and cities include public safety, environment, affordable housing, transit, water and roads.
Overall, the Survey of Mayors points to the many similar challenges cities of all sizes are encountering and how those cities are constrained by lack of funding. Collaboration between municipal governments and the private sector could prove to be a bigger factor in the future as cities search for new capital.