Fact Checking the Infrastructure Proposal
President Donald Trump, in his budget proposal, included a 2018 Infrastructure Initiative Fact Sheet. The plan is geared towards metropolitan regions and explicitly covers sparsely populated regions in the country, providing them with special treatment.
Trump's Plan Claims: The flexibility to use federal dollars to pay for essentially local infrastructure projects has created an unhealthy dynamic in which state and local governments delay projects in the hope of receiving federal funds.
The Reality: According to the EPA, 95% of water infrastructure projects are funded by state and local government entities. While the federal government lacks capital, state and local governments who prioritize job creation of cutting taxes and offering corporate subsidies are filling the void.
Trump's Plan Claims: During the construction of the Interstate System, the federal government played a key role – collecting and distributing federal tax revenue to fund a project with a federal purpose. As we neared the completion of the Interstate System, those tax receipts were redirected to projects with a substantially weaker nexus for federal interests.
The Reality: The federal government played a significant role in the Interstate System, true, but ignoring the devastation caused to a number of communities as a result is irresponsible transportation planning. The completion ofthe highways running through urban centers had the same effect this has had in almost all cities that put interstates through their hearts. It decimated close-knit African American communities.
Trump's Plan Claims: Given these challenges, the Administration's goal is to seek long-term reforms about how infrastructure projects are regulated, funded, delivered, and maintained. Providing more federal funding, on its own, is not the solution to our infrastructure challenges.
The Reality: According the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), in 2007, every $1 billion in federal highway expenditures supported about 30,000 jobs — 10,300 in construction, 4,675 in supporting industries, and 15,094 in induced employment. While we agree that P3 investments are one useful strategy, they are not sufficient to achieve the level of infrastructure investment this country requires.
Trump's Claims: $1 trillion in infrastructure funding.
The Reality: President Trump's "$1 trillion infrastructure plan" isn't $1 trillion and it isn't a plan. It's a $200 billion plan to develop a plan that hasn't advanced any further for six months now.
Trump's Claims: The infrastructure plan is a new standard for P3s.
The Reality: The focus is not simply on using federal money as honey to attract large sums of private investment. Instead, the focus is on using federal money to leverage state and local government and also private money. (Michael Likowsky, Huffington Post)
Trump's Claims: The Trump infrastructure plan will create American jobs.
The Reality: A $1 trillion plan would be welcome because it would create 18,000 jobs for each $1 billion in investment. Instead, we have a $200 billion promise that's not a serious plan and won't lead to significant investments in our country's future. The Trump infrastructure plan calls for $200 billion of federal funding that will "leverage the private sector" to pay for the rest. What does "leveraging" mean? It means state taxpayers and infrastructure users will be on the hook for the other $800 billion in the form of taxes, toll roads or other privatized projects whose profits pad the pockets of private entities — not local or state budgets. EPI
What Can You Do? Take Action
- Share the below image on Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media to spread awareness of the realities of Trump's infrastructure "plan."
- Tell your member of Congress that a true American infrastructure plan is mutually exclusive with gutting infrastructure funding.
