How investing in infrastructure will help drive the U.S. economy

Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber CEO & President Jill Meyer joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss how investing in infrastructure will help drive the U.S. economy.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Senate Republicans are set to unveil a revised infrastructure package this week to counter President Biden's $2 trillion proposal. The focus on that one expected to be on roads, public transportation, as well as airports. Certainly good news for the city of Cincinnati, as it looks to secure funding to upgrade its infrastructure.

Let's bring in Jill Meyer. She is Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber CEO and President. Jill, it's good to talk to you today. Walk me through the needs as you see it, in terms of upgrades within your city, and how significantly federal dollars are likely to help.

JILL MEYER: Well, it's an unmatched opportunity that we have at this moment in time. And the timing couldn't be more important, because over the past, oh, probably decade, we've identified that investing in our infrastructure is our single biggest need to keep driving our economy here in the Cincinnati area, which is already a diverse economy and growing. But we have a need to invest, both in transit systems to move more people around to their jobs, to education, to health care, but we also have a little bridge called the Brent Spence Bridge, which has been a bottleneck for us locally, but really also for national freight and goods coming through the Cincinnati area. This is an expensive proposition to be fixed. And that has been a long time coming. And so the opportunity to work with the federal government as it looks at finding those 10 most economically significant bridges in our country, I think I can tell you we have the number one bridge right here needing that investment.

ZACK GUZMAN: Yeah. As far as projects like that, let's dig into that bridge there. Because our producer was really all about it. McKenzie was all about it in our morning meeting, talking about the Brent Spence Bridge. And when you look at it, it's obviously one that even President Trump talked about fixing when he was on the campaign trail. The longer it takes to fix it, experts say, the cost goes up there. And it's been declared obsolete.

So I mean, talk to me about how that project kind of speaks to what's needed right now across the country, and one specific example there, in the way that it's kind of proving itself very evident that it needs some upgrading.

JILL MEYER: Yeah. It is, as I had the good fortune to share with Vice President Kamala Harris last month. There's no better example in the country for an economically significant bridge than the Brent Spence Bridge. It's the second busiest bridge in the country. Every year, 3% of our GDP passes over that bridge. At least three presidents now have paid attention to this bridge. President Obama gave a speech underneath of it. President Trump looked at the opportunity. And now we're hoping that President Biden-- maybe third time's the charm and we'll actually get something done.

But the reality is that bridge was built in 1963 and it was designed to carry about 80,000 vehicles a day. Today it's carrying double that. It's been declared functionally obsolete. And it's a real problem for both through traffic, so you have an enormous amount of freight coming through there, but also on a local level, it only takes one little fender bender-- unfortunately, they're not usually fender benders-- but it only takes one little mishap on that bridge and it backs up traffic for miles. And that is time and money and resources sitting in traffic, all because this bridge is not designed to accommodate what it's trying to accommodate now.

AKIKO FUJITA: Jill, when you think about the infrastructure debate that has played out administration after administration, a lot of it has been about how much of it should be federal, how much of it should be dictated at the local level. And I wonder if you can speak to the increased importance of getting those federal dollars at a time when cities across the country are really strapped in terms of revenue because of what's played out during the pandemic.

JILL MEYER: Yeah, you've hit right the heart of the matter, Akiko. It is the question. What we know is that states and locals have to come to the table with some ability to invest in these projects. At the same time, they can be overwhelming and there's no way that two states-- this bridge spans Ohio to Kentucky-- there's no way those two states can come up with, you know, north of $2.5 billion. For the feds to look around and to understand that rebuilding an economy and helping us all come out of the COVID impacts also requires us to look really intentionally forward, and if we are investing to make sure that our economy can keep growing, infrastructure is at the top of that need. It's the way people move. It's the way goods and services move.

And I can tell you, sitting in a region where Cincinnati sits, we are so strategically located to watch and see how a single bridge can really impede commerce. We get calls from businesses from Detroit, Michigan clear down to Miami, Florida saying, when are you going to get that bridge fixed? It is impacting far beyond Cincinnati. But if the federal government is looking at how do we restart our communities, how do we get economics flowing, infrastructure absolutely has to be at the top of that list.

AKIKO FUJITA: Yeah. It's certainly a good example of the challenges so many communities are facing with aging infrastructure. Jill Meyer, Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber CEO and President. Appreciate you stopping by today.