Manteca Bulletin: "McNerney Vows to Secure Road Money"

As the Manteca Bulletin reports, Congressman Jerry McNerney understands that channeling highway funds to San Joaquin County can bring much-needed new jobs to employment centers served by these transportation projects:

He views it as a way to create economic opportunity for a region that he describes as “the new Appalachia” in reference to the historically poverty stricken region in the East.
McNerney noted the San Joaquin Valley as a whole leads the nation in two of three key indicators of poverty — high infant mortality, hunger, and low education. Per capita income is lower in the eight-county San Joaquin Valley and public assistance is higher as well than in the 68-county Appalachia region based on a 365-page Capital Research Service study issued in 2005.

“Right now, California receives 90 cents on every dollar it sends to Washington, D.C.,” McNerney said minutes after congratulating San Joaquin County leaders for landing $282.4 million in state bond money to widen Highway 99 from Manteca to central Stockton from four to six lanes. “The Democrats in California are working with Speaker (Nancy) Pelosi to change that.”

McNerney concurred that many out-of-state leaders have the impression that all of California is wealthy. McNerney promised to work as a member of the powerful House Transportation Commission to work with Manteca and San Joaquin County leaders to secure federal assistance for interchanges at McKinley Avenue and the Highway 120 Bypass as well as a new Austin Road/Highway 99 interchange.

Both interchanges will access new employment centers — 850 acres at Austin Road and several hundred acres at McKinley Avenue. The job creation is expected to provide a mixture needed to reduce commuting over the Altamont Pass to higher paying Bay Area jobs as well as provide jobs for the unemployed in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

For more on how enhancing Highway 99 can improve quality of life in Manteca and surrounding communities, read the Manteca Bulletin article here.

Comments

[Don McLaughlin]

There will be more money for all of these efforts when we stop the bleeding in Iraq. Please support ALL efforts to end the American military presence in Iraq.