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CNN Saturday Morning News

Members of Various Regional Chambers of Commerce Discuss Local Economies

Aired October 06, 2001 - 10:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Bush is pushing the Congress to approve a $60 billion tax relief package aimed at boosting the ailing economy. Mr. Bush says cutting taxes will revive an economy he says has been shocked by the September 11 attacks.

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GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And in order to stimulate the economy, Congress doesn't need to spend any more money. What they need to do is to cut taxes. And so I propose this, I propose that the United States Congress as quickly as possible pass tax relief equal to or a little bit greater than the moneys that we have already appropriated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: We want to try this morning to get some perspective on how this economic debate is playing outside the Beltway of Washington. From Pittsburgh, Barbara McNees, president of the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce; Jerry Roper, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce who is visiting family in the Pittsburgh area today; and from New Orleans, Bill Hines, of the New Orleans Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Let's start with you, Mr. Heinz. I see sitting behind you the Super Dome, home of the Super Bowl this year. Any sense -- I spoke to your mayor a few days ago. He said a devastating short-term impact on the travel and tourism industry, is that continuing or have you seen any rebound in recent days?

BILL HINES, NEW ORLEANS CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Well, we met with tourism officials just yesterday, and frankly, looking at the stadium issues. And they now feel that things are settling out. And if things continue this way, particularly with the news about the Super Bowl swapping dates with the Automobile Dealers Convention, that that industry is starting to come back.

KING: And Jerry Roper joining us from Pittsburgh this morning, but you are from Chicago, the hub of American Airlines, United Airlines, obviously this a crisis that has had a devastating at least short-term impact on the airline industry. What is your assessment of what it has done to your economy back in Chicago? JERRY ROPER, CHICAGOLAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: Well, those first several days cost our local economy over $1 billion. You know, our huge transportation hub O'Hare, the largest international hub in the United States of America generates about $34 billion on an annual basis and employs over a half a million people.

So when you shut something like that down, there is no doubt that with September 11 and 12 cost us approximately about $1 billion a day. But things are bouncing back. We've had our large Plastic Society show that was in the city last week. They did extremely well. The hotels are back to almost 80 percent, and the airlines, both American and United, are projecting right now somewhere upward of 70 to 80 percent loads.

So you know, we see this nation's hub at O'Hare and the hotel community, restaurant community starting to bounce back.

KING: Barbara McNees, as you sit there and watch developments in the Pittsburgh area, what can the federal government do to help this economy?

BARBARA MCNEES, PITTSBURGH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: I think the federal government has started to help the economy. We were in Washington on the ground the week after, making sure that a package was put together for the airline industry. U.S. Airways has Pittsburgh as a hub, it's a major employer, in fact our largest employer. It's very important to us that the airline industry be able to recover quickly from this.

Unfortunately, we have experienced layoffs. But with the re- opening of Reagan, which was a great decision, that will help the cash flow for U.S. Air. And it was announced that they hoped there would be no more layoffs now because of that.

We have the factors in place, the low interest rates, energy costs are going down. Two of our utilities just announced that they would take rate cuts before the home heating fuel season comes in. And we also, with the federal government announcing their packages to rebuild and to reinvigorate what has happened in New York and also across the country, I think that that will be instrumental in stimulating the economy now.

ROPER: I think what most people understand, this is not a bailout, this is a stimulus package to get this nation back to normal and it is important that I think Americans understand that. I know that there have been some criticism. In fact, we had our United States senator unfortunately vote against the package. It is important that we get America traveling again.

KING: Well, Bill Hines in New Orleans, let me pick up on that point. Important to get America traveling again. There has been a great debate about airline security and airport security, but cities and states also dealing with security matters as well. What is the impact of that, the cost of improving security? What impact does that have on local economies? HINES: Well, we're looking at it, we now have our tourism industry, we also have a very significant port, and we also have a major portion of the United States petrol-chemical and refinery industry here. And so, in addition to just the tourism industry, we're now starting to see more and more efforts, and really I think probably complete re-looks at how do you secure the port, how do you secure these oil and gas refineries and petrol-chemical refineries, oil rigs out in the Gulf.

So I think you're going to see a whole new industry in a sense, on how do you protect these assets beyond just the air industry at this point.

KING: All right, a continuing debate here in Washington and around the country over the economic impact of the events of September 11, just what the government can do to help.

We want to thank you for your thoughts this morning: Barbara McNees, the president of the Greater Pittsburgh Chamber of Commerce; Jerry Roper, the president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce; and in New Orleans, Bill Hines, chairman of Metrovision, the economic arm of the New Orleans Chamber of Commerce. Thanks to all three of you, we'll perhaps check in more in the days and weeks ahead.

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