Trump’s $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan kicks most of cost burdens to states, cities
Published on Feb 12, 2018 by
BY TERENCE CULLEN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Monday, February 12, 2018, 11:14 AM
The Trump administration is set to unveil a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan Monday that largely puts the bill on the shoulders of local governments.
The plan includes just $200 billion in federal dollars, something President Trump hinted at during his State of the Union address late last month.
State and municipal governments would assume the rest of the funding for new infrastructure that might include water, rail and highway works.
The reduced federal spending is a departure from the lead fiscal role Uncle Sam typically plays in infrastructure.
“We all would have liked to have seen more of a money investment across the country in infrastructure,” said Carlo Scissura, president and CEO of the New York Building Congress, a construction and engineering trade group.
“Our hope is that a bipartisan Senate will come back and say, ‘We need more of a money investment.’”
Half of the $200 billion will go toward a grant program that will match 20% of the cost for state and local projects.
Another $20 billion will be earmarked for “transformative” projects, according to reports, with an expansion for the same amount to the existing loan program.
The Trump administration is also setting aside $50 billion for rural infrastructure investment.
That might be welcome news to red states that supported Trump, but hoped his White House unveiled an infrastructure plan during his first year.
Scissura, who’s leading a group of about 20 executives based in the region to meet with lawmakers in Washington early next month, told the Daily News the rural investment is good — but cities need to get their fair share, too.
“I don’t want urban infrastructure to play second fiddle to rural,” he said.
Federal investment in projects such as highways can sometimes cover up to 80% of the costs.
But White House officials told reporters over the weekend that it wasn’t kicking the can on infrastructure.
“Not only are we not walking away from the federal responsibility, we’re taking even more responsibility to ensure that we get infrastructure funding and permitting on a sustainable track for generations,” one official said.
What’s unclear is how smaller governments will raise the money for these infrastructure projects.
“Taxes are one of the ways that state and local governments could raise revenues, but are certainly not the only ways,” one official said to CBS News. “They can sell bonds, use public private partnerships, create user fees, etc. We’re pretty agnostic to the way they raise revenue.”
Experts believe the plan will lead to more public-private partnerships, which proponents argue takes the onus off taxpayers.
The fate of the proposed Gateway Tunnel — which would run between New York and New Jersey — also appears to be undecided in the announcement.
The Trump White House has reportedly shied away from the Obama-era commitment to fund half the construction for the tunnel, which would carry Amtrak and NJ Transit trains under the Hudson River.
“I think everyone in the infrastructure world, at least in the New York region…has some honest concerns about what is happening with Gateway,” Scissura said. “Gateway is now officially in peril, and we need more money from the federal government.”
Development experts are also worried the streamlined permitting process in the Trump proposal could lead to fewer studies on how a project might impact the environment.
“The plan also suggests rolling back important environmental protections to push projects along without proper oversight from federal regulatory agencies,” Kevin Heaslip, a civil and environmental engineer at Virginia Tech University, said in a statement. “Common sense review of regulations is needed to balance the maintenance of environmental quality and the need to reduce the time for design and construction and in turn the overall project cost.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/trump-infrastructure-plan-puts-burden-states-cities-article-1.3815389
