Americans Really Want More Infrastructure Spending

Still, respondents from across the political spectrum agreed on the need for increased action on infrastructure from all tiers of government. Roughly three-quarters of individuals surveyed wanted more from their state governments, while 72 percent and 70 percent wish federal and local governments, respectively, could do more. About 68 percent said that more federal dollars going into roads, bridges, and pipes would have a positive impact on the economy. Public transit systems were not included in the survey—thoughprevious surveys show that the majority of Americans support increased transit spending.

So how likely are these voters to get their wishes? Over the past 10 years, total capital spending on infrastructure has fallen in all but five states and the District of Columbia, and federal infrastructure investment over the past three decades has dropped from 1 percent to 0.5 percent of the nation’s GDP. The American Society of Civil Engineers has estimated that the U.S. faces an infrastructure spending gap of nearly $1.5 trillion, shared between all tiers of government. More than ever, that number has a human face on it: the lead-tainted water in Flint was essentially a direct result of a state cutting corners on infrastructure investment. 

Both presidential nominees have said that they plan to budget hundreds of billions towards infrastructure projects, taking advantage of the current historic lows in interest rates. And Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton has received attention for repeatedly proposing a federal infrastructure bank that helps finance state and local projects. Other than his infamous wall, Trump has made few concrete proposals. But as the depressing saga of the (now effectively bankrupt) Highway Trust Fund shows, Congress appears uninterested in raising the money for infrastructure maintenance and improvements. “Unwilling to ask users or taxpayers to pay more for roads and other infrastructure projects, Congress has resorted to increasingly desperate and gimmicky proposals, including a proposal to capture a portion of repatriated corporate profits, and transferring funds from the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet,” CityObservatory recently reported, by way of explaining the essential unlikelihood of Clinton’s “i-bank” reaching success.

It’s a shame that this survey didn’t ask respondents if they’d be willing to pay higher taxes for better infrastructure, since their leaders in Congress seem to assume that the answer is no. Other polls have found that Americans would cough up more for road maintenance. A small but growing number of states seem to be listening—eight have recently made tax-raising moves to pay for road construction, and a couple more are even beginning to turn to per-mile driving fees. Meanwhile, public-private partnerships are becoming more common as a financing strategy for local public works projects. But from a national perspective, as long as revenue-generators such as the federal gas tax remain untouched year after year, the U.S. has a long road ahead to infrastructure worthy of the 21st century.