Center for American Progress

How should America pay for its infrastructure needs?
In the News

How should America pay for its infrastructure needs?

Author Kevin DeGood emphasizes the importance of the federal government funding state and local infrastructure projects, which would in turn encourage local elected officials to raise more tax revenue for those projects.

Infrastructure projects cost money. No amount of hand waving or fancy financial jargon can overcome this fact. Unfortunately, this hasn’t stopped the Trump administration from trying.

Throughout his presidential campaign, Donald Trump repeatedly vowed to spend $1 trillion to rebuild America’s crumbling infrastructure. As president, however, this pledge has been replaced with calls for state and local governments to “maximize leverage” by taking on expensive private equity capital through public-private partnerships, or P3s. The federal contribution to these deals would be limited to a tax credit for equity investors.

The above excerpt was originally published in Illinois Business Journal. Click here to view the full article.

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Authors

Kevin DeGood

Director, Infrastructure Policy