Dayton Business Journal...
Official: Obama jobs bill would bring $1.1B for Ohio infrastructure
by Adrian Burns
Thursday, October 27, 2011 

More than $1 billion in transportation funding will come to Ohio if Congress passes the transportation portion of President Barack Obama’s American Jobs Act, U.S. Department of Transportation Deputy Secretary John Porcari said during a visit to Columbus Thursday. 

Porcari was in town to advocate for the president’s jobs bill to local business leaders, politicians and economic development officials in a roundtable held at the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. In a meeting with reporters, Porcari said the transportation portion of the broader bill, which has made little progress in Congress, would allocate $50 billion to transportation projects around the country, including $1.1 billion to Ohio. 

“Transportation is economic development, and business leaders understand that,” Porcari said. 

The measure will be discussed in the Senate next week, he said. Congress traditionally has given transportation infrastructure spending bipartisan support, he said, so breaking transportation out could give the bill a lift. 

“It does help underscore the individual parts of it,” he said. 

Of the $50 billion in the transportation portion of the American Jobs Act, about $27 billion would go to roads and bridges, $9 billion to transit systems, $5 billion to a competitive grant program for projects, $4 billion for high-speed rail, $2 billion for airports and $2 billion for Amtrak. 

Read this and other articles at Dayton Business Journal