The Final State of the Union
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Summary:
A former mayor explains why investing in infrastructure will help our cities and towns become interconnected job-creating communities.
Watch former Republican Mayor of Meridian Mississippi, John Robert Smith, discuss the importance of investing in our nation's infrastructure here.
John Robert Smith says we can’t wait to invest in our nation's infrastructure. Smith, the former Republican Mayor of Meridian, Mississippi, said that expanding and improving our system of roads, highways, railways, and airports creates jobs for people who need them now as well thriving, well-connected communites and engines of economic growth.
“We can’t walk away from transportation infrastructure investment and expect to ever grow ourselves out of the recession that we’re in today,” he said.
Smith is president of a coalition called Reconnecting America that helps cities and towns make smart investments in transportation infrastructure. He believes that easy access to transportation is critical to because it connects people to their communities and resources like jobs, health care, education, and more. Plus, well-planned infrastructure links towns and cities with other towns and cities, creating a vibrant network of connected communities.
Smith said that infrastructure is “not a red issue, a blue issue, or a Republican issue, or a Democrat, liberal or conservative. It’s about how we connect our people to jobs and our children to their future.
“I was mayor of my hometown in Meridian, Mississippi for 16 years and there I never met a pothole that could identify itself as a Republican or a Democrat. It was an issue to be resolved,” he said. “I want our country to face the transportation infrastructure investment we need today with that same type of approach.”
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