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Nutter meets with Obama's senior aides, again asks for help

    by Patrick Kerkstra
    Published 

One day after announcing a second $1 billion deficit, Mayor Nutter met again with senior aides to President-elect Obama to again ask for federal help for cities. The press release is below.

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Mayor Michael A. Nutter was in Washington, D.C. today to meet with members of President-elect Obama’s transition team to discuss measures to stimulate urban economies and create jobs. This follows Mayor Nutter’s testimony yesterday before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming on how cities are the best place to start for both economic stimulus, and creating a green and sustainable infrastructure.

“President-elect Obama has made it clear that he intends to provide significant investment to stimulate the economy and create jobs, and what Mayors around the country are saying is start with cities,” said Mayor Nutter. “We have shovel-ready projects, people ready to be put to work, and are the perfect places to look for energy efficiencies and sustainable ways of doing business.”

Mayor Nutter met with Chief of Staff-designate Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Obama’s chief economic advisor Larry Summers and economic advisor Jason Furman, and incoming White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Cecilia Munoz. The meeting was organized by the U.S. Conference of Mayors (USCM) and included USCM President Mayor Diaz (Miami, FL), Mayor Palmer (Trenton, NJ), Mayor Riley (Charleston, SC), Mayor Hudson (Greenville, MS), and Mayor Rybak (Minneapolis, MN). The mayors discussed the package of measures proposed yesterday by Congressman Obey, Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations. President-elect Obama’s transition team reiterated their view that cities are going to play a significant role in turning around the national economy.

The meeting comes one day after Mayor Nutter announced an additional $1 billion budget deficit projected over the lifetime of the City of Philadelphia’s FY10-14 Five Year Plan. Mayor Nutter made clear that there were no easy fixes to this problem and that it would take a combination of spending cuts, new revenues, and partnerships with the state and federal government to ease the city's financial crisis.

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