Miami's Diaz offers mayors' wish list to Obama

The list includes requests from cities across the country. For his home county, the mayor seeks money to complete $10 billion worth of public-works projects for those who travel by air, land and sea, enjoy parks or use the county's court system. Included in the lengthy maze of requests are a $280 million streetcar system, $100 million for a tunnel to the Port of Miami and a $180 million Metromover extension to the site of the Marlins ballpark in Little Havana. The mayor, in Washington this week heading up the meeting of the mayors' conference, asked for hundreds of millions of dollars to complete construction of the North Terminal at Miami International Airport and to build schools. He sought a further $10 million for an aquatic center at Virrick Park, new air conditioners in all the county's transit buildings and more than $1 million for restroom and concession improvements at Hadley Park.

The most expensive request for Broward County is $92.8 million to help Hollywood obey a new state law that seeks to stop the dumping of treated sewage into the ocean.

150,000 NEW JOBS

Obama has said he wants to make job creation nationwide a priority, and city and county officials estimate that the 1,720 projects on the list would create more than 150,000 jobs.

''The quickest way to get people back to work is through infrastructure projects that can be rolled out quickly,'' said Diaz, who thinks the port tunnel project alone will create 2,000 jobs.

The wish list is ambitious, but it might be more than just a pipe dream. Though some requests are probably farfetched, others -- like much-needed transit improvements -- seem to fall in line with Obama's vision.

The rollout of the mayor's ''Main Street Economic Recovery'' plan came on the heels of a promise Saturday from Obama to begin the nation's largest public-works project since the interstate highway system was built more than a half-century ago.

Where the money would come from is not entirely clear. Obama, who indicated it will be borrowed, envisions public works as the quickest way to get the country back on solid economic ground. He asked the U.S. Conference of Mayors for a list of projects that would be ready to go by 2010.

Obama said one of his goals is to replace the almost two million U.S. jobs that have been lost this year alone, putting people to work to fix the nation's deteriorating roads, bridges and buildings.

Critics argue that borrowing more money -- on top of the recent $700 billion bailout plan -- will cause the federal deficit to swell.

As president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors -- and a contender for a job in the Obama administration -- Diaz visited Capitol Hill this week with a list from 427 cities asking for $73 billion for 11,391 projects, with the expectation of creating 847,641 jobs by 2010.

The project lists were gathered so quickly that Chicago and New York could not deliver theirs in time, but Diaz said he expects them shortly.

Most of the requests -- as well as the projections for jobs created by each project -- came directly from requests cities annually make to Congress. That was the case in Miami-Dade and Broward.

EASING THE BURDEN

Miami Chief Financial Officer Larry Spring said the city chose projects from its portfolio that can be started in the next two years.

The key, he said, is to ease the burden on local government.

''Think about the money that will be saved to our local taxpayers, to you, to me,'' he said.

Broward leaders have asked for $977 million in projects from Hollywood to Pembroke Pines. Pines Mayor Frank Ortis wants $182.5 million for about 70 projects. Among them: $14.5 million for a new City Hall.

Ortis believes the projects would employ about 1,060 workers. ''It's a great economic boost,'' he said. ``To me, it's a win-win.''

So just how likely is the South Florida wish list to be fulfilled? No one can say for certain. But members of South Florida's delegation are beginning to offer support.

Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart of Miami and Democratic Rep. Alcee Hastings of Miramar are on the House Subcommittee of Legislative and Budget Process, a crucial stop before a bill goes to the floor for a vote.

Diaz-Balart said he will fight for South Florida to get its fair share of federal tax dollars, including those offered by the Obama administration.

David Goldenberg, chief of staff for Hastings, said there is an outside chance Congress might earmark some of the requests, but added it's doubtful in the current political climate.

But ''if Miami-Dade County, and Miami and Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, and every city in between is working with state and federal agencies, then they're doing the right thing, right now,'' he said.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Carlos Gimenez, who describes himself as a fiscal conservative, is wary of Obama's stimulus plan and handouts at any government level.

''My view on how to stimulate the economy is to put the people's money back in their pockets,'' he said.

But Gimenez said there are exceptions. Asked what he would do if the federal government offered $1 billion to help finish the new terminal at MIA, Gimenez said, ``we'll take it.''

Though Diaz would not single out what he considers the neediest or most important of the projects, transportation issues like a railway extension, expanding Metromover, building a port tunnel and a parking garage clearly top his list -- and would require the greatest chunk of money.

''We're at an opportunity in history to really make some shifts in the way we fund transportation projects that are going to be with us for decades, or a hundred years,'' Diaz said.

DESPERATE FOR CASH

No project needs a new funding mechanism more than the seemingly always-under-construction North Terminal at MIA.

The terminal is the largest remaining hurdle in what is now the world's largest airport construction job, according to county Aviation Director Jose Abreu.

''What I'm saying is, I have a need that's at capacity, and if someone doesn't help me out, I'm going to end up borrowing the money to finish it,'' Abreu said.

``The airport needs to borrow between now and 2011 close to $2 billion. And there is no community so dependent on its airport as South Florida.''

Diaz also is asking for $300 million to develop a light-rail line along a 70-mile section of Florida East Coast Railroad that would run from Miami's Government Center through downtown Fort Lauderdale and up to Jupiter. The potential commuter line has been proposed and studied for decades, and the mayor said building it would create about 6,000 jobs.

Asked if it is likely he can get enough money from the federal government to check off most of the requests on his list, Diaz said, ``I don't know. But we very much want to be in a position so we can get something passed.''

Diaz, who spoke with Obama on Monday about the recovery plan, pointed to the nation's crumbling infrastructure, then told of the Conference of Mayors getting its start in 1932, when leaders from Buffalo, Pittsburgh and other northern industrial cities gathered with President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The result was the New Deal.