Annual Report 2014
Advocacy
Policy Agenda
New York City is now operating under a new Mayor and leadership team in the City Council. Given these sweeping changes at the highest levels of City government, a critical component of the Building Congress 2014 policy agenda will be to build relationships inside City Hall and encourage public officials on the importance and enormous benefits of keeping New York City building for its future.
At the same time, the Building Congress intends to work closely with Albany and the New York congressional delegation to pursue a range of important policy objectives in what is an election year for most elected officials.
The 2014 policy agenda is guided in large part by the Building Congress Infrastructure Campaign, an effort to focus public attention on the need for intelligent investment in core assets like rail, roads, schools, and water and sewer service.
City Agenda
At the City level, the capital budget is the top priority for the Building Congress. After nearly a decade of record spending on infrastructure, the design, construction, and real estate community must convince the de Blasio administration and City Council of the need to maintain a robust capital program as it simultaneously pursues its objectives in other areas.
Along with advocating the adoption of new, dedicated revenue sources to fund infrastructure, the Building Congress is urging the City to improve how it delivers its capital projects. A number of alternative project delivery methods and administrative best practices offer opportunities to streamline the procurement process and project management to create efficiencies, speed construction, and reduce the costs of public projects. One prime example is the State's precedentsetting use of a rapid agency review process and design-build procurement to commence construction on a new Tappan Zee Bridge with virtually no delay. Such innovations can and must be replicated on the local level.
The Building Congress also continues to support strategic economic development initiatives that will create meaningful jobs in the short-term while shaping new neighborhoods and expanding the region's tax base. The lead item on this front is the longawaited East Midtown Rezoning initiative.
State Agenda
Filling the enormous gap in the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) capital program is a top priority at the State level. The MTA's next fiveyear capital program begins in early 2015 and faces, conservatively, a $15 billion gap, most of which will have to be funded by the Governor and the Legislature.
The Governor also should lead the effort to improve the Penn and Moynihan Station transportation corridor, and the Building Congress will keep pressing the State and the City to take decisive action on four major projects: completion of a new Moynihan Station, bringing new trans-Hudson rail capacity into Manhattan, initiating West Side access for Metro-North trains, and improving conditions at Penn Station. The Building Congress report Moving Midtown West explains the dire need for these projects and includes recommendations for bringing them to fruition.
With government authorities and agencies starved for the revenue to fund critical projects, all potential new financing sources must be examined. The State Agenda calls for passage of design-build and public-private partnership (P3) legislation, both of which encourage innovative financing and management of major infrastructure projects.
The Building Congress is likewise committed to the creation of strong new protections for contractors responding to government-declared emergencies. Dubbed the "Emergency Responder Act," this legislation would shield contractors assisting during recovery efforts following events like 9/11 and Superstorm Sandy from the threat of unlimited liability claims.
Federal Agenda
The Building Congress is working with its elected representatives in the United States Senate and House of Representatives to ensure that billions of dollars in Superstorm Sandy recovery funds are made available as quickly as possible. These funds are necessary to address the immediate needs of those directly impacted by the storm and to enable New York's government agencies to move ahead on projects designed to fortify the City's existing infrastructure in advance of the next emergency.
Given the imminent expiration of the federal surface transportation law in September 2014, the Building Congress also is working with the New York congressional delegation to secure a longterm transportation funding plan that adequately meets the needs of the nation's mass transit-oriented urban centers.
