New Ways of Spending Money on Infrastructure
Monday, December 01, 2008 4:59 PM
The way we fund this nation's transportation network is fundamentally broken, and we need new ways to decide how money gets spent.
That's the premise of a recent New York Times column by David Leonhardt -and also reflects the sentiments of Mary Peters, U.S. Secretary of Transportation.
On her blog, The Fast Lane, Peters asks readers if they agree that we need to find a new way forward to finance transit projects.
The U.S. House of Representatives recently passed a bill that allocates $18 billion for new construction projects, and President-elect Barack Obama has indicated he will sign a version of that bill, asking for billions of more dollars to create jobs and help fix this nation's infrastructure at the same time.
Leonhardt points out that infrastructure spending has increased 50 percent over the past decade, after adjusting for inflation. Right now, government agencies spend about $400 billion a year on infrastructure, reports Leonhardt. Still, even though it's at a 27-year-high, it's far below spending levels of the 1950s, 60s and 70s when the Interstate Highway System was being constructed.
So why is our infrastructure in such shabby condition? Transit experts blame a mindless approach to distributing money. Robert Puentes of the Brookings Institution says we send a blank check and hope for the best. 
"We need an extreme makeover," he told the NYT.
Peters pointed out another flaw. "The United States is one of the few countries in the world to make the majority of its transportation investments without first conducting any kind of economic analysis to determine whether those investments will have any practical benefits for commuters or shippers. The results are telling," she told the NYT.
Leonhardt says government agencies need to link a project's economic and environmental benefits to its request for funding. Click here to read more of his suggested solutions.