Infrastructure in the News: August 5, 2010

Fox News reported that Government Accountability Office found that every state but one received more federal highway money than their taxpayers contributed since 2005 and U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced in a press release that $1.2 billion are to be invested in 126 broadband infrastructure projects in rural communities. More in this Infrastructure in the News.

National News

Politico: The road to jobs
...A robust new highway bill is a three-fer. It is good for jobs and for an industry that is struggling, good for our competitive position in the global marketplace and good for our environment — traffic congestion, for example, contributes almost 30 percent to our greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, construction is an economic stimulus we can afford at a time when we are borrowing more than 41 cents of every dollar we spend. We do not need to borrow money for the transportation bill. We can pay for it by increasing the gas tax, which has not risen since 1993. The gas tax is a user fee, and just a few cents could help create jobs, improve our infrastructure and better the climate.

Huffington Post: Better Than Nothing" -- But We Need Much More When it Comes to Creating Jobs
...The vast majority of voters, on the order of 70% of total voters, want newly formed independent government agencies - both a "national infrastructure bank" and a "green bank" - to invest in infrastructure generally, transportation and clean energy and in other areas that create jobs. Notably, the same vast majority wants to "put unemployed people back to work at government-funded public service jobs that meet important community needs".

NY Times: Greens Debating Tactics Instead of Ideas
...3. Reinvent national transportation policy. This is a goal mostly for Congress as it considers the surface transportation reauthorization bill next year. But Obama can give traction to real reform if he gets behind it. Today, states are awarded more federal funding for building roads than for building mass-transit systems. The incentives should be reversed. Reducing America’s “vehicle miles traveled” should be at the top of federal transportation policy, alongside better vehicle fuel efficiency. Meantime, President Obama can fulfill another campaign promise by starting work on a national low-carbon fuel standard.

State News

Press Release: USD 1.2 billion to be invested in 126 broadband infrastructure projects in rural communities
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced here Wednesday the funding of 126 new Recovery Act broadband infrastructure projects that will create jobs and provide rural residents in 38 states and Native American tribal areas access to improved service.

FOX News: Study: States Reap Windfall in Federal Highway Money No Matter What They Pay
Despite complaints that states are not getting their fair share of road dollars, the Government Accountability Office found that every state but one received more federal highway money than their taxpayers contributed since 2005.

Reuters: Special Report: Smart money in real estate is on smart growth
...But some experts in the real estate business believe that in the future, more and more of us will be going back to places like the revamped Rockville -- quite happily, in fact. "They had a point at the time," Sally Sternbach, the head of Rockville's economic development arm, says of R.E.M.'s quiet anthem. "We got it wrong. We built a mall that never found its anchors. It languished for 40 years. It was like the biblical 40 years in the desert."