The Delta Grassroots Caucus (DGC) is a broad coalition of grassroots leaders in the eight-state Delta region. DGC is also a founding partner of the Economic Equality Caucus,
which advocates for economic equality across the USA.

Delta Caucus Opposes Deficit Commission's Proposal to Abolish the DRA

Posted on November 11, 2010 at 05:50 PM

The Delta Grassroots Caucus staunchly opposes the poorly informed, destructive proposal of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility to abolish all regional commissions, including the Delta Regional Authority, which has utilized its tiny budget to do a fine job of creating jobs, supporting job training programs, improving health care for the underserved rural Delta, promoting strategic planning and research, and otherwise aiding community and economic development in America’s most impoverished region.

“The DRA has a proven track record of using its small budget of only $13 million annually to leverage far greater investments. Eliminating this small but excellent program would have no meaningful impact on reducing the deficits, while destroying one of the few sources of hope for a brighter future in the impoverished Delta,” said Delta Caucus director Lee Powell. Delta Caucus leaders of both parties from across the region called for striking this proposal from the draft of the commission’s report that was announced this week.

Support for the DRA is bipartisan: for example, both Republican US Representative and Senator-Elect John Boozman and Democratic US Senator Blanche Lincoln staunchly supported the DRA and opposed the deficits commission’s proposal.

“The deficits commission demonstrated a remarkable lack of knowledge about America’s most impoverished regions in this ludicrous proposal. Their central argument for abolishing the three commissions (Appalachian Regional Commission, DRA, and the Denali Commission in Alaska) was that ‘a number of these efforts are duplicative of many other existing federal programs.’ This is flatly erroneous, because far from duplicating other programs’ work, the DRA’a activities are unique additions to other agencies’ projects, in recognition of the reality that poverty in the region is so severe that special efforts above and beyond existing programs are needed to combat the Delta’s economic plight,” Powell said.

“This is a ridiculous proposal to kill a program that creates jobs, puts people back to work, and by helping the economy aids the effort in promoting economic recovery,” said Desha County Judge Mark McElroy, vice president of the Caucus. “We were very enthusiastic about the DRA’s future after the appointments of excellent new leadership in Chris Masingill of Arkansas as Federal Cochairman and Mike Marshall of Missouri as Alternate Federal Cochairman, and then this nonsensical proposal comes flying out of the blue,” McElroy said.

“We’ve all worked so hard for so long to get the DRA where it is today as a positive economic development engine for the region, and now this commission comes along and wants to destroy it. Economic recovery in the Delta is part of the economic picture for the country, and we need to be supporting constructive investments such as the DRA program, not tearing them down,” said Mayor Barrett Harrison of Blytheville, Arkansas. Many other grassroots leaders from across the region echoed those sentiments (see comments below.)

Powell said “The DRA has a rare statutory authority to use its federal funds to count as the local match, thus opening up the door to leverage much larger sources of funding that the most impoverished communities previously could not gain access to because they did not have the funding to even supply the local match requirement for economic development projects. Kill the DRA and you kill that rare statutory authority.”

We would also like to quote from the separate statement by Fedferal Co-Chairman Chris Masingill made today from Clarksdale, Mississippi: “The Delta Regional Authority serves as an economic multiplier for the 8-state Delta Region,” said Federal Co-Chairman Chris Masingill. “We will continue to play an important role in the nation’s economic recovery because the Authority is in the business of growing and retaining jobs, and the best way to reduce the deficit and spur the economy is by putting people back to work.”

“By creating the Delta Regional Authority, bipartisan Congressional partners such as Senator Bill Frist (TN-R) and others joined with then President Clinton to solidify a national commitment to uplifting the Delta Region. This unique economic development organization has produced real results with clear outcomes. In less than a decade, the Authority has invested nearly $86.2 million into more than 600 projects leveraging $1.4 Billion in private-sector investment, producing an overall 22 to 1 return on taxpayer dollars.” (The rest of the DRA statement is at the end of this statement.)

Powell pointed out the accomplishments of the DRA that refute the ill-informed notion that the regional commissions are duplications and have not accomplished much. “The commission also ineptly argued that it is difficult to find out whether the ‘outcomes” of regional commissions’ projects can be attributed to their work or to other governmental or non-governmental organizations, or market forces. This argument again indicates that they have not done their research carefully, because the DRA has provided extensive documentation of the impact of their investments, as demonstrated by the following facts:

Even with a limited budget, here are estimated results of the first eight years of the DRA:

–The DRA used $74.5 million in its federal funds to leverage $353.8 million in federal, state and local funds and $1.154 billion in private investment for a total investment of $1.89 billion.

–These investments led to over 34,000 jobs being created or retained, over 33,000 families with improved water and sewer, and more than 6,300 people receiving job training.

–The Delta Doctors program has placed over 100 doctors in underserved areas of the Delta at no additional cost to the taxpayers, by allowing foreign medical graduates to stay and practice medicine here in the Delta in underserved areas. Each placement is carefully scrutinized so that the Delta Doctors are not displacing American doctors.

–The Healthy Delta Initiative and other programs for attacking diabetes and other health maladies in the region, which have a debilitating impact on our economic development.

–Strategic planning such as the Delta Development Highway System plan, a plan on information technology and other strategic plannning designed to expedite action for regional economic development.

From a low point of a $5 million budget in 2004 caused by the Bush administration having slashed DRA funding from the original $30 million annually envisaged when President Clinton signed the original DRA legislation into law in 2000, our Congressional delegation and grassroots leaders advocated an increase for this meritorious agency, and funding has risen to $13 million. The first Obama administration budgets more than doubled the Bush administration request of $6 million up to $13 million, so that is a step forward.

Quotes from grassroots leaders across the region opposing the commission’s proposal to abolish all regional commissions:

Larry Williams, CEO of the nonprofit Delta Citizens Alliance based in Greenville, Mississippi, said “As a graduate of the DRA’s Leadership Institute program, I have firsthand knowledge of the beneficial impact the DRA has had on the Delta region. It would be like going back to the Stone Age to remove that vehicle for progress, which community development professionals in the Delta regard as essential on a wide range of activities, including research, strategic planning, leadership, and access to additional funding through the DRA’s constructive investments.”

The views opposing this proposal are shared by Democrats and Republicans in the region., such as Rex Nelson (an Arkansan), President Bush’s appointee as Alternate Federal Cochairman of the Delta Regional Authority, who served the DRA in Bush’s second term. This is part of our release that we sent to you a few minutes ago. Both Republicans like Rex Nelson and Democrats in the Delta are totally opposed to the deficits commission idea of abolishing the DRA.

Quote from Rex Nelson: “The need to reduce the deficit is great, but abolishing the Delta Regional Authority would be a counterproductive move. The DRA has the potential to be a regional coordinator of funds spent in the region by other federal agencies, ensuring that those funds are used as efficiently as possible. Abolishing the DRA would cost taxpayers money in the long run rather than saving them money.”

Dr. Martha Ellen Black, director of the nonprofit Susannah Wesley Family Learning Center in southeast Missouri, said “It is unconscionable as responsible Americans to overlook our most impoverished regions as the commission is now doing. We in Missouri had great hopes for the DRA, especially with the excellent new leadership of Chris Masingill as Federal Cochairman and Missouri’s own Mike Marshall to head the agency, and now they’re proposing the termination of those programs. The DRA is constructive in promoting economic recovery, and this proposal just makes no sense.”

Rev. Dwight Webster, senior pastor of Christian Unity Baptist Church in New Orleans, said “President Obama’s budget for the DRA this year was $13 milllion, a small sum but still much better than President Bush’s budget requests of $6 million. Abolishing the DRA would have no meaningful impact in reducing the deficits, while extinguishing one of the few sources of hope for the impoverished in the vast region extending from New Orleans to southern Illinois.”

Rev. Webster said “Eliminating loopholes and having the wealthiest Americans shoulder their fair share of the tax burden would be a more effective way of cutting the deficits than abolishing programs like the DRA that are designed to help the neediest of the needy.”

Mayor Glenn McCord of Yellow Bluff, Alabama, said “The efforts of the DRA in our local area in the Alabama Black Belt are profound, with everything from medical visits to grants that provide the local match and enable us to get funding that otherwise we would not be able to receive.”

In responding to the commission’s allegation of “duplication” by the DRA, Mayor McCord said “We can’t see much evidence that the other existing programs are accomplishing much, but we can in the case of the DRA. Thank God for the DRA and it would be a shame to abolish this very constructive agency.”

Powell said that eliminating the DRA’s relatively tiny budget of $13 million would not have any real impact on the enormous deficits. “We acknowledge the importance of cutting the deficits, but that should be done by such effective methods as eliminating loopholes and getting the wealthiest Americans and corporations to shoulder their fair share of the tax burden.”

“You can’t balance the budget on the backs of poor people in the Delta,” Powell said.

“Our nation’s leaders in Congress have recognized for decades now that some regions like the Delta and Appalachia have such profound economic troubles that they require additional help, so this proposal flies in the face of anti-poverty policies,” Powell said. In fact, the 2008 farm bill created several new commissions: the Northern Border Regional Commission, the Northern Great Plains Regional Authority, the Southeast Crescent Regional commission, and the Southwest Border Regional Commission. The new commissions have generally only been authorized and have received no funding or only very small “start-up costs.”

Powell said “What we need is a national policy to treat all the regional commissions in a fair, equitable way, with funding levels determined by objective criteria like size, poverty levels, population, and needs, rather than have it determined by whose Members of Congress have greater clout in Congress.”

“President Obama ought to appoint an advisory committee to devise a fair, rational system for funding and managing the various commissions for the most impoverished areas of the country, rather than the current, irrational hodge-podge where Appalachia gets $76 million a year through the energy and water bill and $470 million a year for its highway system, the DRA gets only $13 million, the Denali Commission serving a tiny population in Alaska gets $12 million, and other needy regions like the Southwest Border receive nothing at all,” Powell said.

TEXT OF STATEMENT FROM THE DRA

We would also like to quote from the separate statement by Fedferal Co-Chairman Chris Masingill made today from Clarksdale, Mississippi: “The Delta Regional Authority serves as an economic multiplier for the 8-state Delta Region,” said Federal Co-Chairman Chris Masingill. “We will continue to play an important role in the nation’s economic recovery because the Authority is in the business of growing and retaining jobs, and the best way to reduce the deficit and spur the economy is by putting people back to work.”

“By creating the Delta Regional Authority, bipartisan Congressional partners such as Senator Bill Frist (TN-R) and others joined with then President Clinton to solidify a national commitment to uplifting the Delta Region. This unique economic development organization has produced real results with clear outcomes. In less than a decade, the Authority has invested nearly $86.2 million into more than 600 projects leveraging $1.4 Billion in private-sector investment, producing an overall 22 to 1 return on taxpayer dollars.”

“Together with our partners, the Authority is creating/retaining approximately 19,000 jobs, and we are bringing new water and/or sewer services to more than 43,000 families. An independent report from USDA’s Economic Research Service found that per capita income grew more rapidly in counties where the DRA had the greatest investment. Each additional dollar of DRA spending per capita results in a $15 increase in personal income – and this means real money in the pockets of our families.”

“Not only do we generate more income for our families, but we do it with transparent policies that are accountable to taxpayers, as proven by nine clean independent audits showing tangible results.”

“The Authority knows the economic pulse of the region, as we work hand-in-hand with local leaders, governors and other federal agencies. Together, we have shown consistent progress with our leverage, our outcomes and our reduction of duplication and fragmentation.”