Michael Bloomberg Proposes $1 Trillion Public Works Plan
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Michael Bloomberg is pledging to repair 240,000 miles of U.S. roads and 16,000 bridges by 2025 as part of a comprehensive public works plan that would send more than $1 trillion to state and local governments over a decade.
Previous efforts to enact sweeping federal infrastructure plans have languished without a consensus on how to pay for them, and Bloomberg isn’t saying yet how he’ll fund his. Those details will be part of his forthcoming tax plan, the campaign said.
Bloomberg argues that past spending hasn’t solved the problem because there hasn’t been a national plan to guide investments in needed work by local communities. The former New York mayor was to discuss his policy at the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ meeting Jan. 22 in Washington.
Bloomberg’s plan calls for allocating $850 billion over 10 years for roads, bridges, dams and other infrastructure, with additional spending such as a $1 billion annual “pothole” fund for emergency repairs and $100 billion over a decade for cities with the worst water systems. He also would focus on airports, including “fast rail links” to 10 of the busiest, as well as expanding transit, high-speed rail and broadband.
The plan also proposes a Climate Resilience Finance Corp. with $100 billion annually in U.S. Treasury credit authority to provide loans, loan guarantees and grants to states, cities and the private sector for green projects. Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.
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