Governors Press Trump on Infrastructure
The group representing the country’s governors delivered a list to the White House this week that outlines hundreds of infrastructure projects governors would like the administration to prioritize.
A spokeswoman for the National Governors Association told Transport Topics the list was not made public. Industry observers and an assortment of stakeholders confirmed the list included projects ranging from freight corridors to pipelines.
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A few governors and state transportation officials have pointed to local projects they would like to see renovated with support from the federal government. In Washington state, for example, officials are pressing for a bridge replacement project along Interstate 5. In California, officials would like to advance express lanes meant to relieve freight congestion in the San Francisco bay area.
State transportation officials at a Senate hearing on Feb. 8 called on lawmakers to help fund big-ticket projects. They also criticized infrastructure projects that would be backed primarily through public-private partnerships.
“P3s and other kinds of borrowing doesn’t work in Wyoming, doesn’t work in rural states because we simply do not have the revenue generation to support that kind of thing,” Bill Panos, director of the Wyoming Department of Transportation, told the Senate panel.
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In their State of the State addresses in January, the leaders of the National Governors Association, the governors of Virginia and Nevada, pressed Trump to lead the way in advancing a massive infrastructure package that would help repair bridges, alleviate congestion along freight corridors and replace pipelines. Governors, led by Colorado’s John Hickenlooper (D), will hammer home that message when they meet in Washington this month for the National Governors Association’s winter meeting.
During the campaign, Trump pledged to advance an infrastructure funding bill during his first 100 days in office that would fix crumbling airports, pipelines and freight corridors over a decade by providing tax credits to investors. Those credits would have the potential of amassing a $1 trillion investment, said Trump, who has cited findings from the national group of engineers, which gave the country’s infrastructure a near-failing grade.
