Washington Times-Sen. John Barrasso: Across America, we have aging roads, bridges, dams and water systems. Our crumbling infrastructure is threatening public safety, slowing economic development and costing us all.
A recent study by the American Society of Civil Engineers found that American families are losing $3,400 per year in disposable income because of crumbling infrastructure. This comes in the form of wasted time in traffic, higher grocery bills or unreliable water and electricity services.
It is time we address our long-neglected public works.
As chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, I am committed to passing infrastructure legislation that will improve lives, protect families and strengthen the economy.
Our committee has held seven hearings this year on improving our nation’s highways, bridges and other structures. These hearings have proven that different communities have different needs. We cannot use a “one-size-fits-all” approach.
Private financing has proven successful for projects in big cities. We should seek private partners to help finance major port and highway projects to help boost our larger urban areas.
This same private investment is typically less effective in rural communities. Big-ticket projects are less common in rural areas like my home state of Wyoming.
Less populous places may need to rely more on public financing. We’ve used these models in the past, and they’re a good way to get the most bang for the taxpayer’s buck if we use them responsibly.
Programs like the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) and the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act allow us to multiply the impact of our federal funds. TIFIA has been around since 1998 and yields what economists call a 40-to-1 rate of leverage. A single taxpayer dollar produces the equivalent of a $40 investment.
Improvement projects in rural communities are possible when we combine federal, state and local dollars. These established funding mechanisms don’t require a new bureaucracy.
Rural states have seen the successes of the federal government contributing its share of funding through formula-based mechanisms that ensure these communities get a fair piece of the pie. These funding programs help projects get done more quickly, without expensive delays.
Last time I saw Whitesnake play I had read an article on Blabbermouth of David Coverdale lamenting how bad America’s infrastructure was while touring. He said his tour bus took a beating while traveling from town to town. And that was back in 2011.
Why do I remember this kind of stuff? 🤔
What about all those “shovel ready” jobs that Oblabberer talked about in 2009? And the TRILLIONS spent?
The roads and bridges still look like shit. Where did all that money go?
And don’t get me started on the highway sound barrier walls…
The trillions went to big corporations
many of them overseas.
Raw sewer overflows in the street when it
rains at my house.60 year old clay pipe.
The water stinks and is good for bathing only.
Every year we get a glossy report telling us
the water is sparkling clean and the lead in it
came from our PVC water pipes in our house,yea right!
No 💩 Jethro!
Pay down the national debt first. Spending our way out of bankruptcy is not going to work.
Obviously people just don’t get it. Why, Cincinnati solved their crumbling infrastructure by telling every to ignore their cars rattling apart on city streets. Why, Cincinnati built a “Streetcar to Nowhere” on a 3.6 mile loop which cost well over $148 Million dollars! Nobody rides it. And instead of making it look like an old fashioned streetcar, which would have been a little better – they made it look like a bullet train. And as for local jobs? Streetcars were built in Spain. Half of the cars are not running at any one time (when’s the last time you bought technology from Spain?) So, of course they had to build a huge repair facility. But that’s what you get with a Democrat government. The next big projext? Converting the water treatment plant to 100% SOLAR! THE ONLY ONE IN THE WORLD. Because everyone knows Cincinnati is known for its sunshine. (yes, that was sarcasm)
Sooooo what’s happened to all the local and state taxes collected to maintain this “infrastructure”? Inquiring minds want to know.
Oh wait, giving your voters free shit is more expensive than we thought. My bad.
Every big-spending piece of legislation comes prepackaged with sugar ants, and just like those ants, the grifters move in and cart every last crumb away. Redistribution of wealth means from the middle class to the wealthy pols and their cronies.
@Jerry Manderin November 5, 2017 at 10:22 am
It comes from listening to too much Nancy Reagan.
@AbigailAdams November 5, 2017 at 11:20 am
You’ve still got middle class in your area? Where is that? Inquiring pols want to know.
F#ck these guys and their “we need $ for infrastructure” bullsh!t. They get the money and never actually spend it on effing infrastructure.
Indiana is talking about making interstate highways TOLL roads. Are you fine with having to pay tolls on roads you already paid for? If they do this, me and lots of other people will always use alternate routes.
Indiana sold toll rights to an interstate-quality road in the north part of the state for lots of money but the company didn’t maintain it then went out of business. The money was supposedly for a specific purpose but lawmakers buzzed around it like flies around shit. The toll road must be rebuilt (with taxpayer dollars), the money is all gone, the special purpose didn’t get it and still needs it (taxpayer dollars), and Indiana just raised gas taxes and will raise them again soon.
Indianapolis is going to spend megabucks to build an unneeded interurban rail line between one of the swankiest suburbs and the inner city that no rich person would be caught dead on so traffic will all originate one way, mainly to export thugs to where the pickings are good.
Meanwhile, Indianapolis and all its surrounding counties are paying extra restaurant taxes to fund stadiums and arenas for sports teams that take a knee against our flag. This was instituted decades ago and was supposed to be temporary until the stadiums were paid off. Yeah, right.
And this is all from the Republican-majority statehouse.