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Advocacy: Protecting Business Interests
Protecting Business Interests
Pushing Back Against Proposed MSA Criteria
PRESENTING SPONSOR:
GOLD SPONSORS:
Your Chamber continues protecting business interests by convening
leaders and influencers to take a stand against bad legislation and regulation. This year the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published new criteria for Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) designation in the Federal register, which would have a damaging impact on the Longview trade area. These two areas would be hit: • Texas Community Development Block Grant Funding (CDBG) and
• The Longview MPO would likely no longer exist. Think of transportation projects, and subsequent economic development projects like Dollar General Distribution Center, and GAP Customer Experience Center.
• Without these improvements and projects with new revenue dollars, jobs are impacted.
LONGVIEW IMPACT
If the rule is passed, the next logical progression would be to include similar thresholds in a new transportation bill. (The FAST ACT expired in December 2020 but was extended for one year.) If that occurs, the Longview MPO, Sherman-Denison MPO, Victoria MPO, San Angelo MPO, and Texarkana MPO would no longer exist.
.................................................... Longview’s Urbanized Area in 2010 was 98,884. The calculation for an urbanized area factors density, not just total population.
BACKGROUND ON PROPOSED MSA CRITERIA CHANGE
On January 19, 2021, the White House Office OMB issued a PUBLIC NOTICE stating that they were considering raising the MSA’s minimum population threshold from 50,000 to 100,000. Raising the MSA minimum population would remove this important MSA designation for 144 cities across the United States, 5 in Texas, including Longview. Comments on the OMB public notice were due March 20, 2021. It is important to note this criteria change would be implemented without the final count of the 2020 census in place and ratified.
WHAT IS AN MSA?
For the last 70 years, OMB has issued geographic delineations for the Nation’s largest centers of population by drawing lines around metropolitan areas and labeling them as MSAs. Currently, each MSA must have at least one urbanized area of 50,000 or more inhabitants. There are 384 MSAs encompassing 1,180 counties.
WHY THE MSA DESIGNATION IS IMPORTANT?
MSAs are used by federal agencies to analyze labor market conditions, spending patterns, and unemployment. It is also used by many federal agencies to determine which areas of the country are eligible for federal funding for such programs as the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG) and infrastructure funding under transportation bills. In 2004, GAO REPORTED that there are more than three dozen programs that use the MSA designations to determine federal funding eligibility. In addition to losing eligibility for federal funding, cities excluded from an MSA would lose local influence and control over regional project planning.
WHICH CITIES ARE IMPACTED?
Based on the 2010 census data, OMB identified 144 cities scatter across almost every state that would lose their MSA designation if OMB raised the MSA minimum population cutoff from 50,000 to 100,000. Texas has 5 MSA designations, one of them being Longview. A MAP of the cities can be found here and a list of the cities can be found in the appendix below.
Dissolution of Longview MPO will result in:
• Loss of local control and influence • Loss of Category 2 funding for regional projects • Loss of regional coordination between local jurisdictions • Loss of institutional framework for good planning between local/state governments for items such as infrastructure extensions and development. • Lack of input on transportation projects (i.e., George Richey
Road) which have, or can have, significant impacts on economic development.
STRENGTH IN COLLABORATION
The Chamber created a concerted effort of messaging and comment response opposing the proposed criteria change. The viewpoint was specifically from the business lens.
Other impacted Texas Chambers – Texarkana Regional Chamber of Commerce, Wichita Falls Chamber of Commerce, San Angelo Chamber of Commerce, Sherman Chamber of Commerce, and Victoria Chamber of Commerce.
Convened local stakeholders.
City of Longview | LEDCO | US Chamber of Commerce | AEP SWEPCO
Our thanks to Longview News-Journal for shedding light on this issue.
[ LINK TO LNJ ARTICLE ]
OUR RESPONSE
The Longview Chamber of Commerce submitted comment on the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) review of the recommendations it received from the Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Area Standards Review Committee. LCC opposed adopting the review committee’s recommendation to increase the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) from a minimum population of 50,000 to 100,000 people. LCC responded to the comments under the Federal Register, but also sent letters to Senator Cornyn, Senator Cruz, and Representative Gohmert.
Our combined message was specific and clear – Raising the minimum MSA population cutoff from 50,000 to 100,000 would undermine the consistency in the collection and tabulation of federal statistics and interrupt the flow of federal aid to our communities. Although OMB has made changes to the statistical program in the past, removing the MSA designation for 140 medium sized cities would make it more difficult to allocate federal aid to the places where it is needed the most. The following are two specific areas within our MSA 4420 designation which have been identified that would be devastatingly impacted by interrupting the flow of federal aid: (1) CDBG and (2) MPO.
#1 IMPACT TO CDBG. The Texas Community Development Block Grant Funding (CDBG) Program for rural Communities receives funds to support small cities and counties to support decent housing and suitable living environments while expanding economic opportunities. Local municipal government is an entitlement program and receives funds directly from the formula program.
A. Funds help support nonprofits, community-based programs, private developers, and public housing authorities who are also working to offer affordable and decent homes, enhanced living
environments, and expanding economic opportunities. The rural communities will be tremendously impacted by formula changes and the span of control for local dollars will be lost and minimized in a pool of an enlarged region of bureaucracy and politics.
B. In Longview, Texas, CDBG has funded these programs:
• Technical Scholarships • Critical Home Repair • First Time Home Buyer Assistance • Facade Program • Emergency Home Repair
C. CDBG funding has totaled $ 5,322,695.20 over the past 17 years.
#2 IMPACT TO MPO. Another concern is that if this proposed rule were passed, it is logical that the next version of the transportation bill would follow suit. If that occurs, the Longview MPO, as well as the other impacted MSAs of Texas, would no longer exist. This would strip representation of the city and regional transportation planning, fundamental to the economic growth of this region.
A. Loss of MPO results in:
• Loss of local control and influence. • Loss of Category 2 funding for regional projects. • Loss of regional coordination between local jurisdictions. • Loss of institutional framework for good planning between local/state governments for items such as infrastructure extensions and development. • Lack of input on transportation projects which, or can, have significant impacts on economic development.
B. Major Projects with lasting economic impacts. Creation and completion of George Richey Road from Eastman to
Gilmer Road, that provides access to the Longview Economic
Development Corporation North Business Park, resulting in new development: • Gap Customer Experience Center - $140,000,000 Gap investment. - 1000 new jobs within next five years. - 1000 PT seasonal jobs by 2026. - Economic Impact of $177,000,000 to the local community. • Dollar General (DG) Distribution Site - Employs >400 people. - Supports 1,000 DG stores. - One of only 2 distribution centers in Texas; 16 nation-wide. - $110,000,000 Dollar General Investment. - Economic Impact of $75,000,000 to the local community.
C. MPO has completed and ongoing $225,000,000 in projects.
D. Longview Transit
New criteria would decrease funding supporting City of Longview
Transit’s ridership. Longview’s Multi-Model Center provides much needed alternative transportation. The pre-COVID average annual ridership is 245,500. Approximately 95% utilize Transit as the only way they have to get from point A to point B, most originating from socioeconomically disadvantaged sections of the city with most commuting to minimum wage jobs and access to medical care and other health and human services. Annual average 5307 award from the CARES Act was $3,810,000 in 2020. Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) 5307 awarded funding was $1,336,500.
E. Mobility Projects and Air Quality
These projects alleviate congestion and with congestion comes the risk of losing our attainment status for air quality. Since 1996, local officials, local industry representatives, the TCEQ, and the EPS established the Flexible Attainment Region (FAR)
Agreement for the Northeast Texas area. As part of FAR, several companies in the Northeast Texas region agreed to voluntarily reduce NO emission.
LEADING PEOPLE. LEADING PROSPERITY. The loss of funding would be harmful for Longview, Texas. Our community EDUCA T I relies upon funding from the programs outlined above, as well as other O federal programs to draw business investments to spur local economic growth, especially now during the COVID-19 economic recovery. N | As of this publication, responses were received from Senator Cornyn and Representative Gohmert, and the Chamber discussed the issue with Gohmert’s legislative team. Your chamber continues monitoring the
Lmovement of the proposed criteria change. For over 100 years we’ve been committed to helping businesses large and small succeed.
LABOR OC ADVOCACY |
[ NATIONWIDE MSA DESIGNATIONS ]
LCC opposes the increase in the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) from a minimum population of 50,000 to 100,000 people. We continue our commitment working to defeat this criteria change.
THE VOICE OF SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS
The Longview Chamber of Commerce supports rebuilding our country’s infrastructure, and has joined a coalition
bringing together a diverse group of organizations including the North America’s Building Trades Unions, the National Wildlife Federation, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the National Association of Home Builders, the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, as well as other leading business, policy and labor organizations as we expand upon work from a broad coalition of transportation and infrastructure groups, with an emphasis on building new partnerships to address our nation’s infrastructure needs. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) along with more than 140 national and local organizations launched the “Build by the Fourth of July” campaign, urging newly elected and reelected members of Congress to enact a fiscally and environmentally responsible infrastructure package by the Fourth of July 2021.
As part of the campaign, the coalition is calling for enactment of comprehensive legislation before July 4, 2021 that will:
Q1 2021 www.sbindex.us
[ METLIFE SMALL BUSINESS INDEX REPORT ]
Repair and update our crumbling infrastructure Stimulate our economy and create middle-class sustaining jobs Address climate change Promote fiscally and environmentally responsible policies Improve federal project approvals
Address the digital divide
#BuildByThe4th
[ MORE INFORMATION ] Let’s Rebuild America | U.S. Chamber of Commerce uschamber.com
