The National Association of Counties responded to President Obama’s State of the Union Address and vowed to work with the President and Congress to achieve shared priorities important to the nation’s counties, including economic recovery and investing in transportation and infrastructure.  According to their press release,

As the Administration works with states and local governments to bolster economic recovery on the ground, counties agree with President Obama that we must invest in the nation’s transportation systems and infrastructure.  At the same time, county leaders expressed concern about tax and finance reforms for funding capital projects.

NACo’s Transportation Steering Committee Chair Peter McLaughlin, commissioner, Hennepin County, Minn., said, “As major owners of the nation’s transportation system, we are intimately familiar with the growing need to invest.  Counties need the kind of certainty provided by a long-term reauthorization of MAP-21.”

Counties own and maintain the greatest share of the nation’s road miles (45 percent) and nearly 40 percent of the number of bridges.  Counties are also the stewards of more than a third of the nation’s transit systems and airports.

For more information, read the complete press release here.