Mayors Have Shopping List For Congress

(CBS/AP)  Washington, D.C., is teeming with mayors, in town for the U.S. Conference of Mayors, many with briefcases and laptops full of proposals they'd like to take to Capitol Hill on everything from fighting poverty and crime to economic development, the environment and homeland security.

Thursday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is to unveil a package of anti-poverty proposals, including a plan for tax-free learning savings accounts for every student in the country.

"This is a down payment on America's future we can no longer afford to postpone," Villaraigosa said Wednesday in a National Press Club speech previewing the anti-poverty proposals developed by a mayors' task force that he chaired.

The main points of the plan include:

A tax-free learning account for every student, with the government chipping in matching funds of up to $500 per student per year. Villaraigosa estimated that every student could have $30,000 by the time they turn 18 to invest in education.

New investments in pre-kindergarten education.

Retooling schools to teach kids vocational job skills relevant to the global workplace in fields such as graphic design, information technology and healthcare. States and local governments would commit up to $650 per student for schools adopting a high-quality, standards-based career academy curriculum.

Raising the minimum wage, as already approved this month by the House of Representatives.

Expanding the earned income tax credit.

Villaraigosa declined to put a precise price tag on his plan, saying that would be revealed Thursday. "The cost is in the billions; the dividends are in the trillions," he said.

Villaraigosa said poverty and poor education are interconnected and must be addressed in tandem.

Proposals discussed at the Conference of Mayors aren't the only ones on the table this week.

Dozens of mayors, taking advantage of the fact that they were already in town for the larger meeting, gathered Tuesday in a Congressional office building for the Mayors Against Illegal Guns National Summit, led by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino.

Summit leaders, who want the federal government to do more to crack down on the illegal flow of guns across city and state lines, want local police departments to be given access to gun sales records, also known as trace data.

The mayors argue that if the trace data were shared, dealers wouldn't be able to skirt or break the law when selling guns.

They also say a small percentage of gun dealers are the ones who sell the guns involved in most of the crimes.

The National Rifle Association has opposed the release of the data, which could also be used in lawsuits against dealers and gun manufacturers.

The NRA and other groups have derided the mayor's agenda as an elitist attempt to fix local crime problems by curtailing the national right to bear arms under the Second Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

Wayne LaPierre, the CEO of the NRA, argues that past gun trace data was misused in a way that weakened criminal prosecutions of criminals.

"The rest of the country doesn't really want New York City-style gun laws imposed on them... where (gun) permits are given out to the elite and the famous while the average guy is flat out of luck," LaPierre said.

Bloomberg, a moderate Republican, counters by saying it is time to "begin showing Congress that it is possible to find common ground on common sense issues."

"We refuse to fall into the same old trap that it is an either-or: either respect the rights of gun owners or keep illegal guns out of the hands of criminals," Bloomberg said. "That's ideological nonsense, and we've just got to move past it."

[gunnerv1]

I would be a "Liberal" if they would leave my guns alone, lower my taxes and reform the welfare system!