Obama, governors to meet

PHILADELPHIA, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Governors will have a chance to bend U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's ear on how the national economic crisis is ravaging state budgets, officials said.

Obama, Vice President-elect Joe Biden and the governors will meet in Philadelphia Tuesday during a conference at Independence Hall sponsored by the National Governors Association, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Wednesday.

Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas said 40 governors and governors-elect planned to attend.

Many states are facing budget crunches because of the sluggish economy and are calling on the federal government to develop an economic stimulus package that would support infrastructure projects and protect states from rising Medicaid costs, the Inquirer said. Economists have said they think aid to state and local governments should play a key role in any stimulus spending package because the governments have less borrowing authority than the federal government and are more adversely affected by an economic downturn.

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell said Obama reached out to the governors association for opinions on the stimulus package.

"Revitalizing infrastructure is the best economic stimulus you can get," he said. "Unlike the bailout, it creates hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of good-paying jobs that can't be outsourced."