The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) believes that a renewed commitment to strengthening our nation's crumbling public infrastructure will create new jobs, stimulate state and local economies, and increase tax revenues. America's physical security and economic competitiveness also depend on safe and reliable airports, roads, bridges, transit, flood control, and water treatment systems. As both employees of state and local governments responsible for these services people count on, and as taxpayers in our communities, SEIU members support President-Elect Obama's call for a major investment in public infrastructure. We call on our next president to make infrastructure investments that not only stimulate the economy, but also create quality jobs, increase public oversight, explore new approaches to the long-term funding required, and meet the 21st century priorities of states and local communities. SEIU offers these recommendations for new public infrastructure investments:

Infrastructure investments that stimulate the economy while both creating good jobs that support families and protecting the rights of public service workers

• Immediate Impact on Jobs and Communities. Infrastructure investments could, by some estimates, create up to 2 million new direct and indirect jobs, and stimulate $35 billion per year in new economic activity in communities nationwide.
• Lasting Impact. By creating or improving public assets ranging from interstates to regional mass transit, infrastructure investments could also spur a significant and lasting impact on state and local economic growth.
• Impact on Public Service Workers. Any new and sustained infrastructure investments should be structured so that they merit the support of current and future public service workers, protect their rights to collective bargaining and union representation, and do not diminish their wages, benefits or other labor agreements.

• Need for Federal Oversight. Since public infrastructure projects exit to serve the public, the federal government has a duty to protect the development and operation of these assets, through appropriate regulation and oversight.
• Need for Community Stakeholders' Involvement. To ensure that infrastructure investments protect the public interest, any decision-making board overseeing these investments should have a wide range of community stakeholders, including representatives of organized labor, state and local governments, environmental organizations, and consumer groups.
• Need for Scrutiny of Public-Private Partnerships. In addition, years of de-regulation and self-regulation of the financial industry resulting in a collapsing economy and irreversible impact on many Americans suggests the need for close oversight of any public-private infrastructure partnerships. Such oversight will ensure that public-private partnerships do not public safety or the rights of current and future public employees.

Infrastructure investments that explore new approaches to the long-term funding needed

• Creating a New Federal "Infrastructure Bank" Model. A new federal infrastructure development bank is a model that, with broad-based public support and oversight, could help rebuild the bond (?) markets for the significant infrastructure spending required for the long-term health of our nation's infrastructure.
• Pooling Public Pension Fund Assets. Public pension funds have more than $3 trillion in assets that could be pooled to restore and build our nation's infrastructure; the stable, predictable cash flows typically generated could help cover pension and health care liabilities.
• Combining Public-Private Sources of Capital. Instead of allowing Wall Street to simply buy up and profit from public assets such as toll ways, a more appropriate role is for private financing of infrastructure that that meets the public's needs: long-term investments, reasonable rates of return, fair transaction fees, transparency, and with the public retaining a share in the revenue produced.

Infrastructure investments that meet the 21st century priorities of states and local communities

• Prioritizing Public Good Over Profits. Decisions about federal public infrastructure investments, and particularly public-private partnerships, should prioritize the public good over investor profits, and should include the voices of many stakeholders.
• Prioritizing Both Large and Small Projects. An integrated approach to infrastructure investments will involve consulting with state and local governments to identify a wide range of infrastructure needs, including, for example, not only large interstate highway projects, but also urban mass transit systems.
• Prioritizing Energy Efficiency and Energy Independence. Infrastructure investments should support energy efficiency goals, including: smart development that supports sustainability and green practices, urban transit systems that help reduce commute times and energy usage, and the transition from nonrenewable to renewable energy sources.