Why can’t we just leave infrastructure spending to the states?

Brad Plumer writes Why can’t we just leave infrastructure spending to the states?.

"Yesterday, I pointed out that Rep. Paul Ryan’s GOP budget proposal would require the federal government to spend less and less on transportation over time. Reihan Salam asks whether this is really such a bad thing. Can’t state governments just pick up the slack?

That’s possible, sure. But it hasn’t happened so far. As a recent report (pdf) from the Congressional Budget Office detailed, the federal government’s share of infrastructure spending has already been shrinking since the 1960s and 1970s. And the states, which still provide the vast majority of spending on roads and highways, haven’t made up the difference. The end result? There’s less infrastructure spending overall as a percent of GDP:"



Now my first thought was that this isn't so bad. I expect more expenses in the fifties and sixes as the interstate highways system was being built and less as it's in maintenance. But Plumer disabuses me of this:

"Keep in mind that this is all happening at a time when infrastructure is getting increasingly expensive to build — the CBO notes that the cost of building highways has tripled since 1980, far faster than inflation. States are spending the same, but getting less and less. Now, maybe this would all be okay if we were keeping our roads and bridges and pipes in good shape. But various experts and groups like the American Civil Society of Engineers seem to think that we’re woefully under-investing in infrastructure of all sorts."

Jared Bernstein adds an example, Keep The Feds Out of Our Economy (um…Never Mind).

"The problem here is a highway in Louisiana that’s at risk for flooding as the sea level rises:

Local residents and business leaders are demanding that the federal government help pay to rebuild and elevate the remaining section of Highway 1, adding two miles to span the levees. Federal officials have provided scientific and technical expertise but will not contribute funding unless the state pledges to complete the road. Louisiana says it doesn’t have the money.

The ironies are almost too much for my pre-caffeinated, Monday-morning mind to absorb. Officials in a state with an aggressive tax-cutting governor—Gov Jindal can boast the largest tax cuts in the state’s history—one who consistently inveighs against gov’t spending, are “demanding” the Feds send money."