Mayors: ?mortally wounds the places where the majority of Americans live, work and play? The numbers are in. The preliminary 2018 federal budget proposal was released by the Trump administration today, and it doesn?t look good for urban infrastructure funding.
The ?blueprint budget? offers a series of sizable cuts in domestic spending, totaling $54 billion, including reductions that would target transportation funding, community development, and public housing. If this budget is adopted by Congress, these cuts could create massive shortfalls in city and local budgets and hinder future plans for reinvesting in urban communities.

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The Lynx Light Rail line in Charlotte, North Carolina, benefitted from New Starts transportation grant money.
Transportation
The proposed Transportation Department budget of $16.2 billion?a 13 percent cut?would impact a host of programs that benefit both urban and rural communities. Such programs have been championed by mayors and city planners across the country, from Seattle to Orlando to expand rail and bicycle networks and create pedestrian-friendly streetscapes.
The New Starts program, which helps fund local transportation projects costing over $300 million (a sister program, Small Starts, assists with projects under that threshold), would be frozen. New applications to the program, which currently has $2.3 billion to spend annually through 2020, would be outright rejected, limiting any new grants a...