Title: Why We Still Can’t Afford to Fix America’s Broken Infrastructure | FiveThirtyEight
Headings: Why We Still Can’t Afford to Fix America’s Broken Infrastructure
Why We Still Can’t Afford to Fix America’s Broken Infrastructure
Content: Much of the current municipal bond issuance seems to be refinancing .) The federal government does play a critical role in one area of infrastructure: transportation. Nearly 30 percent of all transportation funding comes from the federal government, with state and local governments making up the rest, according to another recent Pew study . A regular and important source of financing comes from the federal Highway Trust Fund, a program that uses revenues from the federal gas tax to fund state transportation infrastructure. The HTF typically distributes around $40 billion to $50 billion each year. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the HTF is set to have a balance of $1 billion at the end of this fiscal year. That means even a state like Florida, which has seen its fiscal health improve, won’t be spending as much money on bridges, roads and tunnels. Florida receives about $2 billion per year from the HTF, and about 35 percent of Florida’s transportation budget is reliant on federal funds, Prasad said. “ There will be impact — but if it’s a short-term impact, we can weather better than other states,” he said.