AIA North Carolina Sees Their Part in the Stimulus Package

By Zach Mortice
Associate Editor

Summary: AIA North Carolina has proved that effective advocacy can flow from the state component level as well as the national and federal level. On Monday, Feb. 16, AIA North Carolina Executive Vice President David A. Crawford, Hon. AIA, and Ann Collier, AIA, AIA North Carolina president, met with U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge at Bugg Creative Arts and Science Magnet Elementary School in Raleigh as he celebrated the passage of the federal economic stimulus package. The stimulus bill includes the Democratic representative’s America’s Better Classrooms (ABC) Act, which provides for $25 billion in zero-interest school construction and modernization bonds to states and local communities. Bugg Elementary is currently undergoing a renovation.

Etheridge’s legislation directs the federal government to provide tax credits to the bond holder for the interest normally paid on a bond. State and local governments would only have to pay back the principal, meaning funds used to pay bond interest would be freed for other education needs.

Members of AIA North Carolina have kept the importance of public infrastructure and sustainability at the forefront their legislators’ minds with their annual Legislative Day, when they invited the public and states representatives to discuss the advocacy role of architects. During the AIA’s 2009 Grassroots advocacy conference, AIA North Carolina members met with all but one of the state’s 15 of members of Congress’ offices. They’ve also pushed the AIA’s 21st Century Schools and Walk the Walk agendas to politicians, including Etheridge, who was then able to incorporate these suggestions into his long-simmering ABC Act, which he first introduced during his first term in Congress in 1997.

“I am pleased that the economic recovery bill includes legislation I have introduced to provide for $25 billion in zero-interest school construction bonds,” said Etheridge. “These school construction funds will put North Carolinians to work building quality facilities where our students can prepare to enter the 21st-century global workforce.”