Written by: Dan Besse
12/11/2006

Besse, a Winston-Salem City Council Member and candidate for North Carolina Lieutenant Governor in 2008, presented the issue to the NLC's Central Cities Council at its meeting on December 8. As Besse recommended, the Central Cities Council agreed to make stronger support for public transit its top federal domestic issue priority of 2007.

The NLC's Central Cities Council represents the public interests of larger American cities, those with populations of more than 200,000. Besse is a member of its Steering Committee.

"Improving public transportation is a key part of our overall strategy to save energy, control public costs, clean up our air, build our economy, and keep our towns and cities great places to live," declared Besse.

"All three of North Carolina's major metropolitan areas--Charlotte, the Research Triangle, and the Piedmont Triad--are in the process of developing critical new public transit systems," Besse continued. "I'm very pleased to help leverage the active involvement of the National League of Cities in support of those goals." The National League of Cities advocates for 19,000 U.S. cities and towns, which directly serve over 218 million Americans.

"The new Democratic Congressional leadership is poised to place a greater emphasis on America's neglected public infrastructure needs," observed Besse. "This is the ideal time to remind them that transportation, especially public transit, needs to be high on their list of funding priorities."


More than 3,500 mayors, council members, and other municipal officials from around the nation met December 6-10 in Reno, Nevada, to help shape the NLC federal policy agenda for the coming year, and to collect new ideas and information to help solve problems in their communities.

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