My concept of a progressive is somebody keen to make use of all of the powers and sources obtainable to the federal government to make the most important optimistic distinction in individuals’s lives. For this reason I ran for native workplace, and why numerous colleagues of mine, in cities massive and small, swore an oath to serve their communities. The challenges are steep, however we’re as much as the job — every single day we use the instruments obtainable, or innovate new ones, to attempt to make the lives of individuals in our cities higher.
That progressive imaginative and prescient is now below menace on the nationwide degree. The primary 100 days of the Trump presidency have imperiled progress in our communities like by no means earlier than. The federal authorities’s open hostility to our constituents, our wants and our options has made serving in native authorities that a lot tougher.
Native authorities leaders throughout the nation are stepping as much as the problem and preventing again, however we are going to want all of the assist we will discover from state and nationwide leaders if we’re going to see our communities via this second.
Everyone knows the federal authorities has largely deserted city coverage during the last 50 years, however the Trump administration signaled that it might be greater than arms off — it might be expressly detrimental to American cities. Earlier than President Trump took workplace, I released a report detailing federal {dollars} that come to Syracuse — to metropolis departments, our housing authority, our faculty district, companions throughout the neighborhood and residents who obtain federal advantages. We knew that a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of {dollars} that have an effect on individuals’s lives have been at stake. We concluded that an administration brazenly hostile to variety, density and liberal concepts may shortly price us tens, if not a whole bunch, of thousands and thousands of {dollars}.
It was not a warning I provided flippantly, however one we would have liked to take it significantly. Since then, refugee resettlement companies have laid off entire staffs. Neighborhood leaders have begun to express concern over future funding via the CHIPS Act. Native officers try to determine what we’ll do if main federally supported infrastructure tasks — just like the I-81 highway removal or lead water line alternative — are modified or reduce midstream.
We’re shedding sleep each evening making an attempt to provide you with different plans for delivering important providers and defending susceptible members of our neighborhood. The mathematics will not be including up.
So metropolis corridor is preventing again. Just lately, I joined Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and small enterprise house owners to speak in regards to the impact of tariffs on native companies. I’m standing with advocates to name out cuts in truthful housing enforcement. And we’ve continued to search out methods to face up for these focused by the Trump administration’s dangerous selections, from organized labor to communities of new Americans.
I’m not alone. My colleagues, like these in Local Progress, a community of progressive native officers from throughout the nation, are standing up. We’ve got one another’s backs — and one another’s cellphone numbers. Mayors, council members, county commissioners, together with my fellow auditors and comptrollers throughout the nation converse often to strategize one of the best methods to struggle again in opposition to disastrous coverage decisions made by the Trump administration and to share concepts on how we reply. The primary 100 days have been tough, however we all know we’re stronger collectively.
This second requires management from the bottom up. Metropolis halls are closest to the individuals we serve. As former President Joe Biden appreciated to joke in regards to the federal authorities, “we do struggle and peace, you do the whole lot else.” He was proper. Native authorities leaders, whereas usually the final voices referred to as upon in these essential nationwide conversations, have been among the many first to really feel the consequences of the Trump administration’s selections.
We are going to proceed to be the primary line of protection for marginalized communities, making an attempt as finest we will to fill within the gaps created when the federal authorities fails to ship.
Alex Marion is town auditor of Syracuse, N.Y.