State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Breakingviews - U.S. will miss out on infrastructure again in 2018

Reuters: NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Every week is infrastructure week, the wags in Washington say. But the effort promised by President Donald Trump to revitalize everything from airports to schools to toll roads keeps being pushed back. It will still be up in the air in 2018.

The president has talked about mobilizing $1 trillion, though even that’s modest compared with the more than $2 trillion of infrastructure investment the American Society of Civil Engineers says is needed over the coming decade. There’s plenty of private money eager to step in, not least the $40 billion fund announced in May by Blackstone, with Saudi Arabian backing.

Some of the tax tweaks proposed by the House and Senate GOP could tilt the market in that direction. The lower chamber’s ideas include ending tax exemptions on interest income from so-called public-activity bonds, one source of funds for airport projects, for example.

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