Trump unveils infrastructure plan to be paid for mostly by state and local governments

So the tax bill penalizes people in states where they are willing to tax themselves for the public good, now Trump wants the states to be the ones to pay for infrastructure improvements.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/feb/11/trump-to-unveil-165bn-infrastructure-proposal

AP
Feb. 11, 2018

Donald Trump on Monday will unveil his long-awaited infrastructure plan.

It is a $1.5tn proposal that fulfills a number of campaign goals but relies heavily on state and local governments to produce much of the funding.
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The administration’s plan is centered on using $200bn in federal money to leverage local and state tax dollars to fix America’s infrastructure, such as roads, highways, ports and airports.

“Every federal dollar should be leveraged by partnering with state and local governments and where appropriate tapping into private sector investment to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit,” Trump said at last month’s State of the Union address.

The president has repeatedly blamed the “crumbling” state of the nation’s roads and highways for preventing the American economy from reaching its full potential.

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Administration officials previewing the plan said it would feature two key components: an injection of funding for new investments and help speed up repairs of crumbling roads and airports, as well as a streamlined permitting process that would truncate the wait time to get projects underway. Officials said the $200bn in federal support would come from cuts to existing programs.

Half the money would go to grants for transportation, water, flood control, cleanup at some of the country’s most polluted sites and other projects.

States, local governments and other project sponsors could use the grants which administration officials view as incentives for no more than 20% of the cost. Transit agencies generally count on the federal government for half the cost of major construction projects, and federal dollars can make up as much as 80% of some highway projects.

About $50bn would go toward rural projects transportation, broadband, water, waste, power, flood management and ports. That is intended to address criticism from some Republican senators that the administration’s initial emphasis on public-private partnerships would do little to help rural, GOP-leaning states.

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