VOICES FOR CHANGE MOUNT QUICKLY
By Neal Peirce © 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
The infrastructure issue -- the long shadow thrown across America’s future by deteriorating roadways, bridges, railroads, water systems, schools -- finally seems to be getting hot.
Three top-tier state and local government leaders -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)-- are leading a new “Building America’s Future” coalition.
They claim state and local governments finance three-fourths of the nation’s infrastructure and are already investing heavily in reconstruction. Rendell has been able to increase bridge repair funding 300 percent in Pennsylvania; Schwarzenegger cites California’s 2006 approval of a $42 billion education, housing, transportation levee repair/flood control bond package.
But the federal government, says Rendell, has receded dramatically as a partner. In 1960, 11.2 percent of federal non-defense spending went for infrastructure; today it’s 3.5 percent. In 1987 America spent 1.17 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on infrastructure; most recently it’s .057 percent.
“It’s time to force the federal government to take this subject seriously,” Schwarzenegger said at a recent Washington news conference joined by governors ranging from Florida’s Charlie Crist (R) to Arizona’s Janet Napolitano (D).
“This is a big national problem that affects our economy and endangers our communities,” he added, asserting there are businesses that can’t expand for fear of inadequate water supply, and that flood disasters loom if storms or earthquakes destroy California levees. “We want every governor, mayor, local official to join us and send a message to Washington they can’t ignore,” he insisted.
The new coalition plans to work with presidential candidates and lobby the two parties’ platform committees to ensure “the next president understands the enormity of the infrastructure crisis.”
The competing Democratic presidential contenders are arguably there already: both Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have endorsed the idea of a National Infrastructure Bank proposed by Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.).
Built on ideas first developed by New York investment banker Felix Rohatyn and former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.), the bank would replace the ups-and-downs of year-by-year funding with long-term, self-financing bonds for major projects proposed by state or local governments.
Presumably, the projects would be worlds removed from Congress’ rudderless transportation funding and infamous “bridges to nowhere.” Preference would go for “fix it first” projects, require broad economic benefits, respond to the new challenges posed by climate change, and include a focus on the growing importance of urban areas.
Add in requirements for clear performance standards and one can just begin to see a radically better era. The bank idea builds logically on America 2050, a four-year old effort initiated by the New York-based Regional Plan Association to develop a vision of excellence for the nation’s future growth. Examples: “smart highways,” dramatically improved intercity and commuter rail, rapid broadband expansion, and consciously protecting natural landscapes, estuaries and green infrastructure that supports clean water and reduces carbon emissions.
It would be tough to find a starker contrast to the Bush administration, which has become completely enamored with the idea of letting private firms finance public infrastructure. The president quickly rejected the Bloomberg-Rendell-Schwarzenegger proposal for Washington aid to help the states battle recession and start filling critical construction gaps.
But America 2050 and its allies argue it was precisely a federal government with visionary plans that made the United States the great nation it became. Their chief evidence (developed by historian Robert Fishman): the 1808 plan of Albert Gallatin, President Jefferson’s Treasury Secretary, for expansive western settlement built on canals and new roads, and President Theodore Roosevelt’s resource-based economic development national plan of 1908. The TR initiative led to the founding of the national park and forest systems, laid the groundwork for the Tennessee Valley Authority and sister projects of the 1930s, and eventually the interstate highway system.
The U.S. House March 12 unanimously passed a resolution, by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), celebrating Gallatin’s plan -- “not merely the commemoration of some obscure historical event,” said Blumenauer, but “the framework upon which America was built for 200 years.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi took the House floor to endorse the resolution, lauding the Gallatin and Roosevelt legacies. It’s time for a strong new nationally-supported effort, she said, suggesting it cover roads to public transit, sewage and water facilities to broadband to schoolrooms. “It’s about good-paying jobs right here in America,” she asserted; “It’s about growing our economy.”
But if you think all that sounds encouraging, check the warning from Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chair of the House Highways Subcommittee:
“We aren’t even treading water. We aren’t even maintaining a deteriorating infrastructure. We are deteriorating toward third-world status while our competitors around the world are leaping ahead with major investments in transit and roads, bridges and highways, ports and waterways--while we fall behind.”
Too bad. Neither the recession nor the deterioration will wait until 2009 before we can start fixing things.
By Neal Peirce © 2008 Washington Post Writers Group
The infrastructure issue -- the long shadow thrown across America’s future by deteriorating roadways, bridges, railroads, water systems, schools -- finally seems to be getting hot.
Three top-tier state and local government leaders -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R)-- are leading a new “Building America’s Future” coalition.
They claim state and local governments finance three-fourths of the nation’s infrastructure and are already investing heavily in reconstruction. Rendell has been able to increase bridge repair funding 300 percent in Pennsylvania; Schwarzenegger cites California’s 2006 approval of a $42 billion education, housing, transportation levee repair/flood control bond package.
But the federal government, says Rendell, has receded dramatically as a partner. In 1960, 11.2 percent of federal non-defense spending went for infrastructure; today it’s 3.5 percent. In 1987 America spent 1.17 percent of its Gross Domestic Product on infrastructure; most recently it’s .057 percent.
“It’s time to force the federal government to take this subject seriously,” Schwarzenegger said at a recent Washington news conference joined by governors ranging from Florida’s Charlie Crist (R) to Arizona’s Janet Napolitano (D).
“This is a big national problem that affects our economy and endangers our communities,” he added, asserting there are businesses that can’t expand for fear of inadequate water supply, and that flood disasters loom if storms or earthquakes destroy California levees. “We want every governor, mayor, local official to join us and send a message to Washington they can’t ignore,” he insisted.
The new coalition plans to work with presidential candidates and lobby the two parties’ platform committees to ensure “the next president understands the enormity of the infrastructure crisis.”
The competing Democratic presidential contenders are arguably there already: both Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have endorsed the idea of a National Infrastructure Bank proposed by Sens. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.).
Built on ideas first developed by New York investment banker Felix Rohatyn and former Sen. Warren Rudman (R-N.H.), the bank would replace the ups-and-downs of year-by-year funding with long-term, self-financing bonds for major projects proposed by state or local governments.
Presumably, the projects would be worlds removed from Congress’ rudderless transportation funding and infamous “bridges to nowhere.” Preference would go for “fix it first” projects, require broad economic benefits, respond to the new challenges posed by climate change, and include a focus on the growing importance of urban areas.
Add in requirements for clear performance standards and one can just begin to see a radically better era. The bank idea builds logically on America 2050, a four-year old effort initiated by the New York-based Regional Plan Association to develop a vision of excellence for the nation’s future growth. Examples: “smart highways,” dramatically improved intercity and commuter rail, rapid broadband expansion, and consciously protecting natural landscapes, estuaries and green infrastructure that supports clean water and reduces carbon emissions.
It would be tough to find a starker contrast to the Bush administration, which has become completely enamored with the idea of letting private firms finance public infrastructure. The president quickly rejected the Bloomberg-Rendell-Schwarzenegger proposal for Washington aid to help the states battle recession and start filling critical construction gaps.
But America 2050 and its allies argue it was precisely a federal government with visionary plans that made the United States the great nation it became. Their chief evidence (developed by historian Robert Fishman): the 1808 plan of Albert Gallatin, President Jefferson’s Treasury Secretary, for expansive western settlement built on canals and new roads, and President Theodore Roosevelt’s resource-based economic development national plan of 1908. The TR initiative led to the founding of the national park and forest systems, laid the groundwork for the Tennessee Valley Authority and sister projects of the 1930s, and eventually the interstate highway system.
The U.S. House March 12 unanimously passed a resolution, by Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), celebrating Gallatin’s plan -- “not merely the commemoration of some obscure historical event,” said Blumenauer, but “the framework upon which America was built for 200 years.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi took the House floor to endorse the resolution, lauding the Gallatin and Roosevelt legacies. It’s time for a strong new nationally-supported effort, she said, suggesting it cover roads to public transit, sewage and water facilities to broadband to schoolrooms. “It’s about good-paying jobs right here in America,” she asserted; “It’s about growing our economy.”
But if you think all that sounds encouraging, check the warning from Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), chair of the House Highways Subcommittee:
“We aren’t even treading water. We aren’t even maintaining a deteriorating infrastructure. We are deteriorating toward third-world status while our competitors around the world are leaping ahead with major investments in transit and roads, bridges and highways, ports and waterways--while we fall behind.”
Too bad. Neither the recession nor the deterioration will wait until 2009 before we can start fixing things.
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