As he accepted the chairmanship of the National Governors Association at the NGA’s centennial July 14, Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell (D) declared infrastructure “not the sexiest of issues, but in many ways, it’s as important as anything we do.”
Rendell formally kicked off his infrastructure initiative with the speech, in which he also noted that the government needs to restore confidence of voters. “The view is that infrastructure is just a pork-barrel process,” he said. “We need to bring back public confidence.”
Approximately 70 current and former governors attended the centennial, which celebrated governors’ role in crafting important national policies and programs in the last 100 years, including the interstate highway system. Improving the country’s crumbling bridges, roads and sewage systems is a $1.6 trillion problem that governors intend to address in the next year.
Rendell said when President Dwight D. Eisenhower was in the White House more than 45 years ago, 11.5% of nonmilitary federal spending went for infrastructure, compared with less than 2.5% today. He said other developed countries spend far more public money on infrastructure than the U.S. and have high-speed transit systems that American motorists, who are paying $4 for a gallon of gas, would likely use.
However, with a shortage of federal money, many voters object to some of the ideas. The federal Highway Trust Fund, which pays for roughly 45% of the nation’s road and bridge building, is expected to run out of money as early as 2009, falling $3.3 billion short of needed transportation funding. The fund is paid for by the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon, which was last raised in 1993.
Rendell said NGA will explore different approaches to pay for the badly needed repairs, in addition to new projects. These alternatives include adding new tolls on roads and partnering with private companies to take over state turnpikes.
