Over 1200 delegates and guests attended the American Municipal Association's Congress in Miami, Florida, November 27th through November 30th, 1955.

Registered at the Convention from Illinois were the following municipal officials: President Leo Struif, Mayor, Alton; Mayor Richard Daley; Michael Murray, Assistant Corporation Counsel; Carl Chatters, City Comptroller, and Frederick Aschman, Executive Director of the Chicago Plan Commission, all of Chicago; Mayor William V. Slothower, Dixon; Mayor James Hennessey and City Manager Chester Lewis, Joliet; Mayor Paul Johnson, Moline; Village Clerk Vernon A. Hewitt, Oak Park; Mayor Milton Lundstrom, Rockford; Mayor Carl L. Bauel, Rock Island; Village President George Wilson, Skokie; Mayor Nelson O. Howarth. Commissioner George Oliver, and A. L. Sargent, Executive Director, Illinois Municipal League, all of Springfield.

Mayor Robert F. Wagner of New York was elected new President of AMA, succeeding Mayor Allen Thompson, Jackson, Mississippi. Two western men were elected to the Board of Directors of AMA, Mayor Fred Peterson of Portland and Richard Carpenter, Executive Director and General Counsel of the League of California Cities. Mayor Ben West of Nashville is the new Vice-President. New Directors are Mayor Kendig C. Bare, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Mayor Anthony Celebrezze, Cleveland, Ohio; Mayor Harry Savage, Camden, South Carolina; Mayor Clyde Verduim, Grand Haven, Michigan; and J. B. Barger, Executive Secretary of the South Dakota League.

The Congress adopted the following resolutions:

The American Municipal Association calls upon the 84th Congress to take immediate action on passage of legislation that will permit the earliest possible start on an expanded federal-aid highway program. The objectives of such a program must be the earliest possible completion of a 40,000-mile interstate highway system and the highest possible level of construction on the federal-aid primary, secondary and urban systems. The need of this program has heretofore been conclusively demonstrated and the Congress must recognize that failure to act or further delay constitutes a real threat to the nation's safety and economic welfare.

To accomplish these objectives the American Municipal Association believes that:

1. Highway legislation must be given top priority for congressional consideration in the forthcoming session.

2. Bi-partisan leadership in both Houses of Congress should formulate and expedite new highway legislation.

3. Financing the federal share of the program should be considered in separate legislation by appropriate committees of Congress In keeping with traditional congressional procedure.

4. A financing plan must provide for 90% federal sharing for a ten-year completion of the interstate system, including urban feeders and that such matching funds be made available to the several states in such amounts and at such times to meet all rights-of-way costs including relocating publicly owned utilities.

6. That new highway legislation give equal recognition to the needs of the urban and rural highways.

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Resolved that the AMA supports Federal Legislation in the field of Juvenile Delinquency which will provide:

a) For the establishment of a national advisory committee to be appointed by the President;

b) Grants in aid to state and local governments which adopt sound programs to combat juvenile Delinquency;

c) Grants to states and non-profit educational institutions to train personnel in the field of Juvenile Delinquency;

d) Assistance In financing pilot projects to test the effectiveness of specific methods to reduce Juvenile Delinquency.

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This Association and the 12,000 cities which it represents consistently have urged the Congress to authorize the payment to municipalities by the federal government of local property taxes or the payment of an annual sum in lieu of taxes on federally-owned property. The Commission on Intergovernmental Relations in its report to the President noted that the immunity of the national government from state and local taxation requires urgent attention. This immunity reduced the tax base of nmniclpalities. The burden falls unevenly, being most severe in areas where the value of federal property is large in proportion to the total property value, the Commission reported.

Congress has from time to time recognized the necessity of obligating the federal government to pay some state and local taxes or their equivalent. In the last session, Congress passed Public Law 388 which grants temporary relief to about 60 communities by authorizing federal agencies to make payments to local authorities in lieu of property taxes on property transferred since 1946 by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation.

The American Municipal Association commends the Congress for its efforts but recognizes that the measure does not meet the needs of our cities. What is needed is a greatly expanded and permanent program for payments in lieu of taxes. The Association urges the Congress to adopt the recommendations of the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations and "... inaugurate a broad system of payments in lieu of property taxes to State and local government."

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Floods of unprecedented magnitude have struck our cities the past year. These disasters have come without warning and have left in their wake a wide path of death, destruction and suffering. Cities are unable financially to bear the tremendous costs of replacing municipal property that is destroyed.

The principle of distribution of risk through the medium of insurance is soundly established in this country. However, there is no insurance available which will cover losses to our cities from natural disaster.

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the American Municipal Association calls upon the administration and the congress to develop a plan for natural disaster insurance which will adequately protect our cities and which will allow for the maximum participation of private business.

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Cities are turning increasingly to revenue bonds to finance necessary public works. It is estimated that revenue borrowing now approaches one-third of total municipal financing. Interest charges which cities must pay for revenue financing is determined in large measure by the competition between financial institutions for these issues. Commercial banks may deal in general obligation bonds but are prohibited by law from underwriting revenue bonds. This restriction in competition has the effect of increasing interest costs and as a result, the cost of many municipal public works is unnecessarily increased.

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THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the American Municipal Association calls upon the Congress to amend Section 5136 of the Revised Statutes of the United States to authorize commercial banks to underwrite revenue types of government securities and allow commercial banks to compete freely with other financial institutions for these issues.

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In June of this year Congress received the last of more than 300 recommendations for improving the federal government made by the Commission for the Organization of the Executive Branch of the Government (Hoover Commission). Many of these recommendations directly or indirectly affect the welfare of our cities. Implementation of the recommendations requires legislative or executive action. In some cases the commission recommended further study. In other cases the commission made recommendations which were not in agreement with the recommendations made to it by its task force study groups.

The American Municipal Association recognizes the importance of the reports and will support those recommendations affecting cities which will increase economy and efficiency while preserving an adequate level of all necessary government services. A special committee is authorized to be appointed by the president from the membership to review the reports and upon the approval of the executive committee to encourage those measures which will best promote the cause of sound overall municipal government and to oppose those measures contrary to municipal welfare.

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The American Municipal Association commends the President of the United States and the Congress for creating the Commission on Intergovernmental Relations. Commission Chairman Meyer Kestnbaum and the members and staff of the Commission have produced a report that is a milestone in the study of American government.

This organization endorses the guiding philosophy of government of the commission which states that we should:

"Leave to private initiative all the functions that citizens can perform privately; use the level of government closest to the community for all public functions it can handle; utilize cooperative intergovernmental arrangements where appropriate to attain economical performance and popular approval; reserve National action for residual participation where State and local governments are not fully adequate, and for the continuing responsibilities that only the National Government can undertake."

It is the earnest hope of the American Municipal Association that the Congress and the executive branch of the government will be guided by this same philosophy.

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BE IT RESOLVED by the American Municipal Association, that the following statement constitute the policy of this Association on approach to the study of the metropolitan area problem:

Over half of our expanding population is concentrated in 170 metropolitan areas. People have migrated across the core-city boundaries into the suburbs. Migration has brought with it a demand for a high level of municipal services. A metropolitan problem has developed because complications of jurisdiction and inadequate financial and administrative machinery have made it difficult to provide these services.

Municipal government is responding to the challenge with bold new experiments. Special districts, cooperative metropolitan planning, contracting for services, consolidated city-county government, and other devices are being tried. As the national organization representing more than 12,000 municipal governments, the American Municipal Association encourages these experiments in the belief that the solution to the metropolitan problem requires new concepts in local government organization.

Metropolitan area problems are also the concern of state and federal government. State government with its constitutional and statutory responsibility for distributing functions to various units has a vital role. The federal government must be concerned with metropolitan areas which cross state borders and with the problems of coordinating metropolitan civil defense.

Many public and private organizations and individuals are engaged in research to define more clearly the problem and to integrate metropolitan areas into the state and national system.

The American Municipal Association recognizes the seriousness of the problem and pledges the full resources of this organization to its early solution. In support of this effort, a special Metropolitan Area Committee is authorized to be appointed by the President from the membership. This committee will be responsible for evaluating the research and experimentation now being conducted throughout the nation and will report to the membership those solutions which offer the most efficient metropolitan area government which at the same time insures maximum citizen participation.

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WHEREAS, A Census of Governments is required by Chapter 13 of the United States Code to be taken for the year 1957, and

WHEREAS, the Bureau of the Census is making preliminary plans to conduct a 1957 Census of Governments which would provide reports of public employment, governmental finances, and tax evaluation, as directed by law, and

WHEREAS, the Census of Governments legally authorized for the year 1952 was not conducted because the Congress did not appropriate the sum of approximately $2 million recommended for that purpose in the Federal Budget, and

WHEREAS, a Census of Governments would supply information of inestimable value to mayors and other public officials and to organizations and individuals having an interest In state and local government,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the American Municipal Association, at its 32nd annual conference, urges the Bureau of the Census to continue its plans to conduct a 1957 Census of Governments and urges the Director of the Budget to recommend and the Congress to provide sufficient funds.

BE IT THEREFORE RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be presented to the Director of the Census, the Director of the Budget and to the chairman and appropriate members of the committees of the House of Representatives and the United States Senate.

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WHEREAS, the Federal Airport Act of 1947 provided for federal participation in the cost of constructing, improving, and repairing civil airports, excepting only hangars; and

WHEREAS, in 1953 the administering agency by regulation eliminated terminal buildings, the resealing of bituminous pavements and the cost of replacing joint sealing in rigid pavements, as items eligible for Federal aid; and by the establishment of arbitrary use criteria drastically limited the scope of the Act; and

WHEREAS, the Eighty-Fourth Congress, with the advice of the states, municipal associations, and nearly all

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segments of industry, amended the Act so as, among other things, to make it clear that the program was to include all classes of airports and all types of work eligible under the Act without restriction; and

WHEREAS, in government-industry discussions preceding the adoption of new CAA policies and standards to reflect the amended Federal Airport Act (P. L. 211, 1955), the advisory group consisting of representatives of the American Municipal Association and other state and city organizations almost unanimously opposed a plan to continue by regulation the ban on seal coating pointing out that this pavement surface has a normal life of only three to five years, and it not periodically replaced will result in a complete breakup of the basic operation of aircraft thereon as it affects visibility, traction, and braking action; nevertheless, it now appears that the finally adopted Civil Aeronautics Administration policy for administering the amended Federal Airport Act excludes seal coating as an item eligible for Federal aid;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that this matter be called to the attention of the Secretary of Commerce, and that the officers of the Association be directed to take whatever steps are appropriate, including the submission to Congress of further clarifying legislation, if necessary, for the inclusion of resealing of bituminous pavements and the cost of replacing joint sealing in rigid pavements as items eligible under the Federal Aid Airport Program.

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WHEREAS, the American Municipal Association has strongly endorsed a broad scale housing program; and

WHEREAS, the effectiveness of such a program is determined by the organizations established to carry out the day-to-day operations; and

WHEREAS, the Housing and Home Finance Agency has established field offices of the Federal Housing Administration, the Public Housing Administration, and the Urban Renewal Administration; and

WHEREAS, the American Municipal Association is concerned by the volume of transactions that cannot be approved by these field offices but must be submitted to the agencies in Washington, D. C. for clearance;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT the American Municipal Association urge the Administration of the Housing and Home Finance Agency to investigate the possibility of greater delegations to the field offices by the various agencies of the Housing and Home Finance Agency to the end that the work of these agencies and municipalities can be accomplished more expeditiously and economically; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this resolution be spread on the Minutes of the Association and that a suitable copy of it be transmitted to the Administration, Housing and Home Finance Agency, Washington, D. C.

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It is the sense of the American Municipal Association that the constitutional

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immunity of the states and municipalities and their agencies from federal taxation is necessary to the preservation of the federal form of dual sovereignty in American government upon which depends the integrity of local self-government in the United States and with it the firmest assurance of democracy and the preservation of human liberties.

Local self-government cannot survive if the federal government receives the power to determine local policy by penalzing certain local activities by federal taxation while rewarding others by exemptions. The constitutional immunity of state and local activities from federal taxation must therefore continue intact without exception.

Now, therefore, be it resolved that the American Municipal Association calls upon the Congress to retain the statutory exemption of all state and local obligations and activities, and be it further resolved that the staff of the American Municipal Association shall make a study of proposals in Congress to tax any state or local obligations or activities and to render a report to the Executive Committee for action in accordance with the sense of this resolution.

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