by Michael Gamboa
President Trump unveiled his new infrastructure plan on February 12th. Trump plans to create 1.5 trillion dollars to help repair and upgrade American infrastructure.
The federal government is giving Trump $200 billion of the 1.5 trillion; the rest will come from state and local government. The states have been responsible for funding infrastructure in the recent years and the White House now wants to speed things up. The federal funding would be split up in 4 different ways:
Half of the funding $100 billion dollars will be distributed to local government. $50 billion dollars of the federal funding will be given to the states so they can spend on transportation, broadband, water, waste, and power projects. $20 billion dollars of the federal funding will go to “projects of national significant” that can “lift the American spirit.” The rest of the federal funding will go into supporting loan programs. This would generate $40 dollars in local and private money for every $1 dollar invested.
Trump plans to cut federal permitting to two years from five. Federal permits are permits needed to build a road or a building, taking five years to get the permit to build a road or building. With Trump’s infrastructure plan it will only take two years.
At a conference in January, the Trump administration said they would not provide a specific funding mechanism. The Chamber of Conference has proposed that they raise the federal gas tax, which would raise $394 billion dollars over 10 years. The White House says it is open to their proposal but hasn’t ruled anything out.