Can Bipartisan Compromise be Found in Infrastructure?

When Donald Trump takes the oath of the office of President of the United States on Jan. 20, he will do so with a divided nation looking for reassurance and leadership. After one of the most negative campaign seasons in memory, all Americans hope that he will make every effort to bring this country together. He can start by uniting both parties around large infrastructure projects that are nonpartisan in nature and a priority for the President-elect and many members of both parties in Congress.

During the election, Trump focused his attention on working class voters in the Midwest and the states where their economic engine used to be manufacturing. Unfortunately, many manufacturing plants have gone dark and workers have seen their jobs shipped overseas. Trump’s populist tones -–on trade deals that weren’t working for everyday Americans, a large infrastructure package that will put people back to work, and ensuring a system that isn’t rigged against ordinary citizens -– hit home.

If Trump follows through on his promise to make a major new investment in infrastructure that would be a welcome start to his Administration. But as with many of his campaign pledges, we know little of what the incoming President has in mind for this infrastructure package. Many conservatives are urging Trump to put little or no new funding into infrastructure and merely offer tax incentives to construction executives to build projects that may already be underway. This would do little to stimulate the economy or add new jobs. It would also only work on projects for which a toll could be charged and provide no help in rebuilding bridges and other infrastructure for which private revenues are unavailable. This kind of tax give-away would be a bitter disappointment and attract no bipartisan support.     First, any infrastructure package must first fix our roads and bridges. This is essential to reenergizing commerce across the states. After the Great Recession began in 2009, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which made investments across the economy and provided one-time tax relief when people needed it most. But even in the most expensive stimulus bill ever passed by a recent Congress, only around $100 billion was used for infrastructure projects. While this is a significant investment, compared to the size of the economy and the magnitude of the need for investment, it was far too little to get the job done.

Even so, the stimulus was a major aberration from the norm, because over the past 35 years, our infrastructure investments as a percentage of GDP have fallen by half. And this disinvestment was compounded by states, counties and local cities – Los Angeles being a rare exception – which followed the federal government’s unwise decision to continually cut infrastructure spending. It has resulted in what can only be considered a major crisis with our roads crumbling and almost 70,000 bridges across the country being deemed “structurally deficient.”

Second, we must invest more in public transit options. For years, infrastructure has been synonymous with more roads; but Los Angeles and California have proven that smart investments in public transit can take cars off the roads, and consequently reduce pollution and improve commute times for workers.

Third, we must modernize and upgrade our nation’s airports and transportation hubs, invest in renewable energy infrastructure and modernize our wastewater systems, dams and levees.

Finally, infrastructure does not just mean the ways we move people, water, goods or energy from one place to another anymore. It also means the ways we communicate. We can revolutionize the way we connect in this county by ensuring every American household can access broadband internet.

Not all of these projects can be done solely by the federal government and tax incentives may play a role along with a major new investment in infrastructure. But tax cuts alone are not a panacea for solving all of our problems, and the solution to our infrastructure problems must also be fiscally responsible. Let’s put a bipartisan package together that puts Americans back to work and rebuilds our crumbling infrastructure while rebuilding public confidence that the government itself can work again.