(01-20-2018 02:09 PM)Love and Honor Wrote:  If this is the plan, I like that the bill is encouraging local/state governments and private companies to get involved. That being said, it doesn't change the fact that the feds should not be responsible for local pet projects, it'd add to the debt if no funding mechanisms are put in place, and creating a ten-year plan doesn't fix the core problem of inadequate maintenance funding. Residents of Wichita shouldn't be forced to pay for Manhattan subway repairs when NYC and NY state can't get their s*** together and will probably underfund the system to where they're in another state of crisis in twenty years. Instead I'd take the following approach:

1. Redirect the current highway fund towards actual highways. If I'm not mistaken the annual construction/maintenance budget is about $50B, but 20 of it is spent on stuff like light rail and bike trails. That's not what it's designed to do, shift it back so we can properly fund interstate maintenance for starters.
2. Create a system of national toll roads. People tend to suck up tolls and pay them instead of using side roads and highways so it'd raise a good chunk of cash, but enough people would avoid them if structured properly to avoid the exponential nature of gridlock and help ease traffic conditions.
2A. Dedicate 40% of the toll money to the highway fund annually, block grant 50% to states based on some simple formula based on population and economic size for them to spend on whatever they want, and for the first five years allocate the final 10% towards immediate repairs for pressing infrastructure safety issues (e.g. Flint pipes), after which point these funds are absorbed by the block grant section.
3. Deregulate private investment in infrastructure spending and expand the loan program to $25B like the article states. If they have the money and are willing to pay for improvements, make it easy for them to do so.

I'm not a fan of the public/private deals. Infrastructure by nature is a public good.

I really get the willies over using the right of eminent domain to acquire property that is then turned into a private enterprise money maker. It's one thing to take (and compensate) Farmer Jones for 20 acres to do something for the general public and an entirely different thing to do that to let XYZ Corp make money.

"Private" deals almost always require either the government loaning money to the private enterprise at government bond rates or permitting the company to issue bonds that are backed by the government to get better interest rates and places the public at risk of having to pay the bonds in default.
They also don't have a great track record of doing construction up to standards.
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2016/10/18/p...goes-bust/

It appears that many private toll firms have been scams. They get government on hook for some of the debt, create sky high projections of traffic to get investors. Traffic doesn't meet the projections, they go bankrupt the government gets stuck with the debt and finishing the project or it gets sold in bankruptcy at a big discount.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/08/...-bust.html