If ever a nation needed to work on upgrading its infrastructure, it’s the United States in 2017. For too many years, our political leaders have been hesitant to ante up the funds this country needs to rebuild our highways, bridges, telecommunications equipment, railroad lines, port facilities, broadband networks, energy systems, and much more.
Everything has a life span, even concrete and steel structures. It has been too easy for politicians — and citizens — to simply take a look at the scope of what is needed and feel overwhelmed.
“We just can’t afford it,” seems to be the sad refrain. I believe the opposite is true — we can’t afford NOT to invest in our infrastructure.
The statistics on our crumbling network of roads and bridges, our seaports and airports, our railway passenger system, has become more than embarrassing; it has become a possible threat to the well-being of Americans who are simply trying to get from one place to another.
For instance, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association, approximately 10 percent of the bridges in the United States are listed as “structurally deficient” and in need of repairs. That 10 percent figures works out to be roughly 58,500 bridges.
Also damning of our casual approach to this growing crisis is this factoid: At the current pace of investment, it would reportedly take 21 years to replace or upgrade the bridges that are currently regarded as deficient. And of course, those bridges decay a little bit more each day, increasing not only the price tag for repairs, but also growing the potential for tragedy.
Our political leaders often don’t blink when it comes to swiftly approving billions to rebuild war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan, for example. But if there is a dam in Oregon that is getting to the point where local officials fear it could possibly collapse, well, it may take years to figure out how to fund the needed improvements to take care of that problem.
It’s crazy. In this situation, President Donald Trump deserves a lot of credit for proposing to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure upgrades across the country.
Last week, the Trump administration proposed spending an initial $200 billion over the next 10 years to encourage this investment. His plan is geared to spur the private sector, as well as state and local government entities, to contribute more of their own funds.
Although it’s nowhere near the $1 trillion Trump called for while campaigning, this is a solid, good faith effort by the president, and Congress needs to get behind it.
Further, this national rebuilding project would employ thousands of workers, which has vast benefits by itself.
In recent decades, Congress has been either cowardly or obtuse in its refusal to raise the gas tax to help pay for badly needed improvements to our roads, bridges, and other networks.
Our faint-hearted members of Congress have avoided increasing the federal gas tax – which is currently pegged at 18.4 cents per gallon — since 1993, nearly a quarter-century ago!
Sure, no one likes to pay more in taxes, but how much do the members of Congress think we’d like to have bridges collapse under our cars, as happened in Minneapolis in 2007? On Aug. 1 of that year, an eight-lane, steel truss arch bridge that carried Interstate 35 across the Mississippi River collapsed suddenly, costing 13 lives and injuring 145.
Tragically, that type of occurrence could become more common if Congress does not act on this critical issue.
Vast amounts of money are needed for infrastructure upgrades, and time is wasting.
— Jesse Burkhardt
Since the actual role of the federal government, as defined by the U.S. Constitution, is to provide for commerce and trade, then spending money on roads and bridges is a good idea.
President Donald Trump wants to roll out a massive infrastructure package that could result in an expenditure of $1 trillion, of which $200 billion would be “direct federal funds” that would be used to leverage up to $800 billion in additional investment from private companies. The work would get done through public-private partnerships with local and state governments.
Cash-strapped local and state jurisdictions have already been forming partnerships with companies that agree to provide capital for improvement projects in exchange for revenue being returned by road tolls, etc.
Unfortunately, to raise some of the capital needed for the nation’s infrastructure needs, there is likely to be a hike in federal gas taxes, which now stands at 18.4 cents and hasn’t been raised for 24 years, nor adjusted for inflation.
The federal government has been spending about $50 million per year on roads, although the gas tax brings in only $34 billion annually.
Federal officials estimate that there is an $826 billion backlog for highway and bridge projects, and a $90 billion backlog for transit.
With Oregon officials also looking to increase the gas tax, motorists will be hit hard at the pump. The state needs to drop its clean fuels tax to take off some of this burden, especially since that fee will make no difference in the global pollution problem.
It will be helpful if U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao can fulfill her two main objectives: Streamline cumbersome red tape that drives up the cost of building tunnels and rails; and push for new financial models to ease the burden on the federal government.
The Trump Administration wants infrastructure dollars block-granted to states with shovel-ready projects.
However, the boondoggle that seems to take place every time the federal government undertakes a project needs to be dealt with. On March 17, 1930, construction began on the Empire State Building and it officially opened 410 days later. Today, bureaucrats and politicians seem unable to make decisions without first considering their own parochial concerns, and bind every project in so much red tape that movement is at a snail’s pace.
Poor results are one of the reasons that two-thirds of Americans express distrust in government.
Remember former President Barack Obama’s “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,” also known as the “stimulus bill,” that poured $1 trillion into the economy? Problem was that the money became a buffet for programs that didn’t improve infrastructure or create jobs. Taxpayer dollars were used to expand welfare benefits and subsidize health insurance, among other things.
Although that money added to the national debt, the American Society of Civil Engineers issued a report card that gave the nation’s infrastructure a “D+” and stated that up to $3.6 trillion in investments through 2020 was needed for repairs and expansion.
Trump is right to want to pare back regulations that are choking the ability of both government and the private sector to get things done. He issued an executive order in January expediting environmental reviews and approvals for all infrastructure projects.
Establishment politicians in Congress should heed Trump’s wisdom in this area. After all, the president in a prior life developed skyscrapers, hotels, international resorts and countless other properties. He knows what it takes to put infrastructure in place.
— RaeLynn Ricarte
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