Horowtiz: It’s Time to Get Serious about Fixing Our Infrastructure
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
In case you weren’t aware, this week is Infrastructure Week. More than 80 organizations including the Chamber of Commerce and AFL-CIO are descending upon Washington for the third year in a row to highlight the critical importance of investing in and modernizing America’s infrastructure systems, and the essential role infrastructure plays in our economy.”
The essential, but neglected task, of maintaining and upgrading our roads, bridges, airports electrical grid, sewer systems, and public transit, is a rare issue that unites business and labor. Both support substantially increased funding across the board with the most immediate priority of replenishing the Highway Trust Fund, either by boosting the 18.4 cents a gallon gas tax that is now insufficient even to fund road repairs or finding an alternative permanent supplementary funding source. Right now, the Congressional Budget Office projects a $170 billion shortfall over the next 10 years for the Highway Trust Fund, according to The Hill. And without Congressional action, the fund runs out of money this year at the end of this month.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimates that $3.6 trillion of investment across the board is needed by 2020 to make US infrastructure safe and dependable. In their most recent report card, they give US infrastructure as a whole a nearly failing “D+” grade.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTAs anyone who travels on our roads or flies knows, to remain competitive economically we must make dramatic improvements. In a global economy, where the rapid movement of people and goods is essential to economic success we continue to fall behind.
Further, investing in infrastructure creates good paying jobs. As Joseph Kane and Robert Puentes point out in a recent analysis done for the Brookings Institution, “infrastructure jobs usually represent long-term, well-paid opportunities for the two-thirds of U.S. workers who lack four-year college degrees.” The authors assert that these jobs pay up to30% more than other jobs available to low income workers.
Given the pressing need and the strong support of key interest groups one would think that it would be a ‘no-brainer’ for Congress to boost infrastructure funding. Yet, because new revenue is needed, every year, including this one, it is an adventure just to plug the holes in The Highway Fund. There is some hope, however, for breaking the log jam. Bi-partisan support for new sources of revenue, such as the ‘Repatriation Tax’ proposed by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY0 and Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and backed by President Obama , is increasing. The Repatriation Tax would be a tax on overseas profits brought back into the country.
Another idea whose time may be coming is forming a National Infrastructure Bank, using initial public seed monies to leverage private investment. This is an Obama Administration proposal, which has attracted some Republican support.
The time is now to stop talking about the need to repair our aging infrastructure and to make the smart investments so long overdue. Here’s to hoping that some time in the near future we won’t need Infrastructure Week to get Congress to perform this most basic and essential of tasks.
Rob Horowitz is a strategic and communications consultant who provides general consulting, public relations, direct mail services and polling for national and state issue organizations, various non-profits and elected officials and candidates. He is an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at University of Rhode Island.
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