A Federal Commission for the Southeastern United States

“For decades, I have supported the Appalachian Regional Commission and its mission to

A Federal Commission for the Southeastern United States

Letter to President

Request to appoint a Federal Co-Chair to the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission

November 23, 2020

President-Elect Joseph Biden

Federal Regional Commission Transition Team

Presidential Transition Headquarters

1401 Constitution Ave NW

Washington, DC 20230

Dear President-Elect Biden:

The Southeast Crescent Regional Commission Coalition is a consortium of public, private, academic, policy, advocacy, community and economic development professionals. We are writing to respectfully ask that you immediately appoint a federal co-chair to lead the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission.

Federal commissions yield results, both in quantifiable boosts to the local economy and in the more meaningful impact on the daily lives of hard-working people in rural communities. Additionally, there are persistently poor pockets within our urban centers that would benefit from targeted investment in infrastructure, workforce development, and innovation.

The journey to stand-up and fund a Southeast Crescent Regional Commission (SCRC) has been a long one. The first study to determine the potential benefits of a federal commission in our region was commissioned by Congress in 2002. It was another six years before the Commission was established in 2008, along with the Northern Border Regional Commission (NBRC), through the Farm Bill. The NRBC has received steady funding since then, including $25 million in 2019. That year, Vermont Governor Phil Scott called the NBRC “one of the largest economic development tools” in his state. In contrast, the SCRC has never received an appropriation of more than $250,000 in a single year despite the fact that it is a much larger region. Given that so many of our communities and frontline workers have been ravaged by the pandemic, these investments are needed now more than ever before.

Federal regional commissions help local, distressed communities leverage their physical, natural and labor assets to create jobs. They make targeted investments in capital, infrastructure, and the workforce with a goal of achieving optimum economic output for regional residents. Federal commissions play a vital role in shifting communities from economic distress to economic resilience with grants that bridge the digital divide and introduce innovation to local industry. These commissions have a track record of stimulating innovation, creating jobs, and fostering economic growth. For example, a 2015 West Virginia University study revealed that counties within the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) experienced economic growth at a much faster rate than neighboring counties that are not in the footprint of the commission. Indeed, poverty in Appalachia has been cut in half since the establishment of the ARC.

The Delta Regional Authority (DRA) also demonstrates the potential impact an SCRC would have in our region. In September 2020, the DRA made a strategic investment of $4,982,686 to stimulate the Mississippi economy and improve the quality of life for Mississippians. The DRA investment will be matched by an additional $13 million in other public funding and is expected to leverage nearly $10 million more in private sector capital. While the DRA is much smaller than the Appalachian Regional Commission—receiving about 17% of the ARC’s $175 million annual budget—a 2011 USDA study found that in the first five years of the DRA, growth in annual personal income per capita “averaged about $600 higher in DRA-recipient counties than in economically and demographically similar non-DRA counties in the Delta Region and in the Southeast. This greater growth represented an additional increase in per capita income in DRA-recipient counties (relative to similar non-DRA counties) of about 3 percentage points.”

Moreover, in 2002, the aforementioned University of Georgia congressional report suggested that if the southeast region received investments similar to those made by the ARC—and the gap in economic output was eliminated in the service sector alone - the southeast region would enjoy additional income of $15 billion, 500,000 additional jobs, and there would be an increase of $3.2 billion in tax revenues.

Focusing on the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission, an already legislatively authorized entity, has the potential to advance each of the four Biden Administration “Build Back Better” priorities. It can play a pivotal role in both prevention of future suffering and recovery from the current pandemic, address needs in a region highly vulnerable to climate change-related natural disasters, and demonstrate the Administration’s commitment to addressing structural racism. Rural communities already experiencing a lack of investment and opportunity, face the challenges of disproportionate impacts to the labor pool and the families for whom they are responsible in both COVID cases and the ensuing financial crisis.

Distressed communities have people disproportionately working low-wage jobs that put them at increased risk for exposure. Fully funded and operational, the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission could provide investment in healthcare facilities, workforce training for higher wage jobs, and reduce the affects of environmental racism with needed investment in infrastructure for economic growth and improved quality of life for Southern Blackbelt citizens.

We urge you to appoint a federal co-chair to the Southeast Crescent Regional Commission and work with the Congress to procure a meaningful appropriation. In doing so, our region will finally benefit from the kind of impact federal commissions have delivered to other regions, as clearly indicated by empirical data.

At this unique moment in history you have the opportunity to set a new tone for the nation and our region. Our region has struggled without leadership on this very critical matter, but this transition period offers the opportunity to chart a new course for the economic well-being of the South. We ask you to wholeheartedly embrace this chance to ignite the flames of prosperity for the people of the southeast United States of America. .

Sincerely,

Signatures

1. Ava Gabrielle-Wise - Southeast Crescent Regional Commission Coalition, Regional

2. Alicia Cramer - US Endowment for Forestry and Communities, Regional

3. Genny Castillo - Southern Economic Advancement Project - SouthStrong - Regional

4. Cliff Albright - Co-Founder - Black Voters Matter Fund - Regional

5. Valerie Rawls - The New Georgia Project

6. Apalachee Regional Planning Council - Florida

7. Jill Chenoweth - President & CEO - United Way of Southwest Alabama

8. Caroline Bott - Virginia

9. Karen Downing - Virginia

10. Latasha Banks - Virginia

11. David Blount - Virginia Association of Planning District Commissions

12. Beverly Carlton - Olive Hill Community Economic Development Corporation

13. Veronica Womack - Black Belt Resident - Georgia - Alabama

14. Karen Hatch - Virginia

15. Alexander McEvoy - California

16. David McEvoy - Ohio

17. Tuskegee University - Ntam Baharanyi

18. Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission - Virginia

19. Sreethu Sreekumar Thulasi - California

20. Representative Merika Coleman - Alabama House of Representatives

21. Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council - Florida

22. Andrew Mack - The Mack Real Estate Group - Virginia

23. Deborah Gosney - Southside PlanningDistrict Commission - Virginia

24. Central Alabama Regional Planning and Development Commission

25. Ines Polonius - Chief Executive Officer - Communities Unlimited, Inc.

26. Caitlin Lejarzar Gaffin - Co-Director - Holler Health Justice - West Virginia

27. Bambie Hayes-Brown - President/CEO - Georgia Advancing Communities Together

28. Dare Dukes - Executive Director - Deep Center - Georgia

30. Robyn Donaldson - Co-Founder - Paths to Peace - Georgia

31. Laura Lester - Executive Director - Alabama Food Bank Association

32. Kathy Hawes - Executive Director - Tennessee Clean Water Network

33. Michael Rogers - Professor/MBA Director - Albany State University

34. Susan Pavlin - Taproot - Georgia

35. Ames Simmons - Policy Director - Equality North Carolina

36. Maxwell Ruppersburg - Executive Director - Reform Georgia

37. Rachel Gunter Shapard - Together for Hope, Black Belt - FL GA AL SC NC

38. Elizabeth Payne - Chief Executive Officer - Northeast Florida Regional Council

39. Alesha Russey - Executive Consultant and Senior Advisor - The Lindberg

40. Rebecca DeHart -CEO - Fair Count Inc. - Georgia

41. Patrick Woodie - PresidentCEO - NC Rural Center - North Carolina

42. Armeer Kenchen - Executive Director - CornerSquare Community Capital, Inc.

43. Patricia M Steed - Executive Director - Central Florida Regional Planning Council

44. Kenny Flowers - Asst. Secretary for Rural Development - NC Deprtment of Commerce

45. Willie Morgan - South Carolina State Manager - SERCAP

46. Joe James - President - Agri-Tech Producers, LLC -South Carolina

47. Bernie Mazyck - President & CEO - South Carolina Assoc. for Comm. Economic Dev.

48. Jim King - President & CEO - Fahe - Appalachian portion of KY, TN, WV, VA, AL & MD

49. Tish Williams - Executive Director - Hancock County Chamber of Commerce - MS

50. John Morck - Planning & Community Development Manager - City of Wilson - NC

51. Rachel Mayes - Executive Director - Southern Echo Inc. - Mississippi

52. Jennifer Copeland - Executive Director - North Carolina Council of Churches

53. Scott Koons - Executive Director - North Central Florida Regional Planning Council

54. John K. Littles - Exec Director - McIntosh Sustainable Environment & Econ Dev - GA

55. Frank Taylor - Winston County Self Help Cooperative - President - Mississippi

56. Charles Wells - President - Democracy 365 - Mississippi

57. Brionte McCorkle - Executive Director - Georgia Conservation Votes

58. Austin Mount - CEO - Emerald Coast Regional Council

59. Janet Topolsky - Exec Director - Aspen Institute Community Strategies Group - DC

60. Mike Couch - Exec. Dir.ector - Central State Local Redevelopment Authority - Georgia

61. Joe McKinney - Executive Director - Natl'l Assoc. Dev. Orgs (NADO) - DC

62. Sarah Bobrow-Williams - Sou. Rural Black Women's Initiative For Econ & Social Justice

63. Curtis Wynn - President & CEO - Roanoke Electric Cooperative - North Carolina

64. Christine Gautreaux - Community Organizer - InterPlay Atlanta - Georgia

65. Deborah Stroman - CEO - SAAM LLC - North Carolina

66. Justin Vest - Executive Director - Hometown Organizing Project - Alabama

67. Jonathan Brereton - Executive Director - Thread Capital - North Carolina

68. Kara Woods - Post- Doctoral Fellow - Tuskegee University - Alabama

69. Mia Raven - Policy & Advocacy Director - West Alabama Women's Center - Alabama

70. James Alan McGregor - North Carolina

71. Kim Smith - Georgia

72. Margaret Wuerstle - Executive Director - Southwest Florida Regional Planning Council

73. Jeanette Vaughn Waddell - Creative Storytelling - Georgia

74. Franklin Delano Williams - Deep Canvass Mngr, NGP's Black Belt Rural Initiative - GA

75. Lew Myers - Chairman of the Board - NC Institute of Minority Economic Development

76. Robyn Hyden - Executive Director - Alabama Arise

77. Martin D. Eakes - CEO - Center for Community Self-Help - North Carolina

78. Latosha Brown - Co-Founder - Black Voters Matter Fund - Regional

79. Jamil Davis - Black Voters Matter Fund - Escambia County, Florida

80. Fannie Marie - Founder - Macedonia Community Foundation - Georgia

81. Sarah Moody - Secretary - Greater Augusta's Interfaith Coalition - Georgia

82. Elijah B. Henderson - Co-founder - A Better Glynn - Glynn County, Georgia

83. Melanie Lester - Chief Executive Officer - South Tifton Learning Center Inc - Georgia

84. Jerome Irwin, Sr. - Savannah A Phillip Randolph Institute - Georgia

85. Dr. Diane B Evans - Executive Director - Jefferson-Screven Concerned Citizens - GA

86. Olivia Coley-Pearson - Lead Chair/ Coffee Cty SRBWI/BVM City of Douglas Council - GA

87. Fenika Miller - Director - New Vision MSK - Georgia

88. Annette Higdon - Fresh Start Global Outreach Ministries - Georgia

89. Marion Warren - Hancock County Democratic Club Inc - Hancock, Georgia

90. Evans Tyrone Primus Jr - Cultivating Lives Educational Services Inc - Georgia

91. Elbert D. Solomon - Urban Outreach Assoc Griffin - Spalding County Dem Comm - GA

92. Lawrence A. Selzer - President & CEO - The Conservation Fund - National

93. Simona Perry - Director - c.a.s.e. Consulting Services - Georgia

94. Chrystal York - Founder/CEO - The Bridge Solution, Inc. - Georgia

95. Tammye Pettyjohn Jones - Sisters in Service of Southwest Georgia

96. Debra McFadden-Bryant - Execution Leader - Sisters in Service of Southwest Georgia

97. Jeanne Milliken Bonds - Professor - UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School - NC

98. Henry Crews - Executive Director - Green Rural Redevelopment Organizations - NC

99. Ivy Nunn - Team Member - BVM/SIS - Georgia

100. Christopher D Bott - CEO - H & H Pharmacy - Virginia

101. Euneika Rogers - Founder - Destination Design School pof Agricultural Estates - GA

102. Kelli Williams - M-WAM Benevolence Foundation - South Carolina

103. Brett Bursey - Executive Director - SC Progressive Network Education Fund - SC

104. James Hull - President-CEO - Mississippi Trailblazers Vision Group - Mississippi

105. Betty L. Petty - Exec Dir - Sunflower County Parents and Students United - MS

106. Teshia McSwain - Community Outreach Coordinator - Path2Redemption - SC

107. Romona Taylor Williams - Exec Dir - Montgomery Citizens United for Prosperity - MS

108. Walley Ricardo Naylor - Southern Echo - Mississippi

109. Deanna Miller Berry - Founding Organizer - Denmark Citizens for Safe Water - SC

110. Kevin Byrd - Executive Director - New River Valley Regional Commission - Virginia

111. Ramona Chapman - Partner - Jubilee Community Engagement Group, LLC - VA

112. Donna Everage - Operations Liaison - Virginia Dept of Health, Ofc of Family Hlth Svcs

113. Sandra Mordecai - Former West Orange Board of Ed President - Essex County, NJ

114. Curtis Wynn - President & CEO - Roanoke Electric Cooperative - North Carolina

115. Thomas J. Lanahan - Exec Dir - Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council - Florida

116. Isabel Cosio Carballo - Executive Director- South Florida Regional Planning Council