Who Will Pay for Infrastructure Upkeep?
Posted at 8:45 a.m. on Dec. 6, 2012
As federal, state, and local governments continue to focus on reining in budget deficits, Fawn Johnson looks at the one area of government spending that needs a massive boost: infrastructure.
“Highways and bridges will need $2.5 trillion in upgrades if they are to survive for another 50 years — a must-do to keep commerce thriving. And that figure doesn’t even take into account the airports, railroads, subways, sewage-treatment plants, waterworks, levees, electric grids, pipelines, and all of those other expensive systems that people ignore until they break down.”
“More and more, the burden is devolving onto the level of government closest to the potholes… If governments are strapped, who’s the last patsy standing? You are.”
