Filling a pothole on the bridge to the 21st Century
America’s mayors want President-elect Barack Obama to throw them a $73 billion bone, according to ABC News:
According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, there are 11,391 infrastructure projects ready to go in 427 cities across the United States. The conference estimates that these projects represent an infrastructure investment of $73 billion that would be capable of producing an estimated 847,641 jobs in 2009 and 2010.
$73 billion for a measly 850,000 jobs? Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts argues that his state’s $1 billion life-sciences program will create 250,000 jobs and the state’s Speaker of the House agrees.
The mayors’ estimate is much more realistic but perhaps still a tad on the high side. I don’t think the massive Big Dig project in downtown Boston employed nearly as many workers per dollar as they mayors’ wish list proposes. On the other hand, the mayors are suggesting thousands of projects that likely have a much higher ratio of labor to capital than the Big Dig did.
Regardless of what the actual job creation turns out to be, President-elect Obama ought to slash the proposal dramatically. First by cutting it half and then by having the cities fund 2/3 of the projects. gain, the Big Dig is telling. The money flowed freely early on when it seemed the federal government would foot most of the bill, but in the end Massachusetts tax payers ended up stuck with almost 3/4 of the cost. If the federal government alone pays for the mayors’ projects the whole thing will end up more or less as a massive rip-off of American tax payers.
