$1.5-trillion infrastructure plan puts burden on states

Unveiled on Monday, the infrastructure programme that President Donald Trump has championed since the campaign is intended to attract a huge amount of additional money from states, localities and private investors.

The goal is to generate a total pot of $1.5 trillion to upgrade the country’s highways, airports and railroads.

Those financial priorities are crystallised in the new guidelines established by the White House.

The ability to find sources of funding outside the federal government will be the most important yardstick, accounting for 70 per cent of the formula for choosing infrastructure projects. How “the project will spur economic and social returns on investment” ranks at the bottom, at just 5 per cent.

In this new competition for federal funds, a plan to, say, build a better access road for a luxury development — a project with the potential to bring in more dollars from private investors — could have a strong chance of getting the green light. By comparison, a critical tunnel overhaul that has trouble getting new money might not be approved.

“Instead of the public sector deciding on public needs and public priorities, the projects that are most attractive to private investors are the ones that will go to the head of the line,” said Elliott Sclar, professor of urban planning and international affairs at Columbia University.

“Private investors will become the tail that will wag the dog, because they’ll want projects that will give returns.”

Proposals intended to serve more impoverished communities that require more state and local money, including improving drinking water in a place like Flint, Michigan, could be given short shrift.

Financial investors may not see a big profit in such a project. “A private corporation has a fiduciary obligation to make a profit. The government is supposed to be providing a public service,” Sclar said.