Infrastructure Week began Monday. Launched five years ago by almost 300 water, road, business, engineering, and related organizations, the coalition lobbies Washington, D.C., to better support local efforts to rebuild and modernize assets.
It’s a noble goal, but even this group confuses new construction and capital improvements with the day-to-day work required to maintain quality of life. Multimillion-dollar projects are easy to champion; they’re big money-makers for engineering firms, builders, and equipment manufacturers that, with their well-funded public-awareness campaigns, capture the imagination. Saying you support “rebuilding America” is like saying you oppose terrorism: who doesn’t?!
Major projects are much easier to sell than the budget request public works directors make every year. Proposing an incremental local tax increase every year to avert major repairs and rebuilds is like reminding people to visit the dentist twice every year: if you can get away with not doing it …
That’s the difference between infrastructure and public works, and it bugs me when people conflate the two.
Agree or disagree? E-mail sjohnston@hanleywood.com.
