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Financing Our Public Works
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18742 |
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SPECIAL SECTION
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8 / 1991 |
6,700 Words |
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If American infrastructure is out of shape, how can the nation pay for shaping it up? Should the federal government sell its public works? Will freeways become tollways? And will the gas tax be used to shore up our nation's sagging bridges and seeping water mains? THE WORLD & I presents a roundtable discussion on the needs of America's surface transportation. Participants include: Federal Highway Administrator Tom Larsen, Congressman Bob Borski (D-Pennsylvania), economist Dave Aschauer, and privatization specialist Gabriel Roth. Current Issues editor Laurie Burras moderated.
The World & I: Is there a crisis of American infrastructure?
Bob Borski: Our nation's infrastructure is in fair to poor shape and getting worse. The most important question is, where do we come up with the money to provide the kinds of services that we need? We have a tremendous problem with congestion in this country that not only inconveniences the people stuck in traffic but also prevents goods from being transported to the marketplace quickly. I recently chaired a subcommittee hearing on bridges. Close to 50 percent of bridges in our country are insufficient. That does not mean they are necessarily unsafe or they will fall down, but it does mean trucks cannot go over them and they have to make a detour, which adds an extra hour or two on their trip. We have a mass transit system that is crying out for help from the federal government, but, in the last several years, the federal government has cut back on aid spent for our mass transit system. We could double the amount of aid, but it would not be enough. If we can establish that there is a dire need, and I believe there is, where do we come up with the money?
Tom Larsen: I think that the congressman has stated it well. The question of just how bad things are has to be looked at in a very targeted way. We [the Federal Highway Administration] will be releasing shortly a report on the condition and performance of our nation's highways. Examining highways under federal aid, this report shows an astoundingly large number of repairs needed that are beyond our resources to fix. Our approach in the past was to try to target power investments on our highways as a system of national significance and to increase the leverage of the state and private sectors. And similarly for transit, we try very hard to apply the leveraging principle. And this is not necessarily an attempt to try to pass the burden on to the state governments because certainly they have large financial difficulties right now--30 or more are in extreme difficulty--but it's simply a recognition, as the congressman said, that there are not
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