Presidential Initiative Seeks Investment In Nation’s Infrastructure
Infrastructure has long been at the heart of economic growth. It also creates jobs and allows this country to compete globally. Toward improving and expanding infrastructure and thus expanding opportunity for Americans while bolstering the economy, President Barack Obama has announced new steps as a follow-up to his 2014 Build America Investment Initiative. That initiative urged federal agencies to find alternative financing tools to ensure adequate investment in the nation’s infrastructure.
Today’s announcement seeks to add private-sector capital and the private sector’s experience and expertise to projects related to roads, bridges, broadband networks and other infrastructure projects.
- Creation of a Water Finance Center – To be located at the Environmental Protection Agency, the center will assist local and state governments as well as utilities and private-sector partners in accessing federal grant and loan programs to give them more revenue options. Among its goals are to bring together investors and project sponsors, point out promising partnerships, host workshops and develop case studies and toolkits. The states will receive information on how to best access and use the more than $3 billion in annual federal water investments.
- Infrastructure tax proposals – These will provide incentives for projects that include both public- and private-sector investments.
- New U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Opportunity Investment Initiative – This initiative will not only help identify investment opportunities in rural water, energy and broadband projects, but will also help connect private-sector investors to the projects.
- Creation of Qualified Public Infrastructure Bonds (QPIBs) – This is a municipal bond that will benefit municipalities seeking to enter into public-private partnerships. Because public private partnerships that include public ownership and some form of private sector management and operations can’t take advantage of the benefits of municipal bonds, QPIBs will extend the benefits of municipal bonds to public-private partnerships. This will include long-term lease and management contracts, which will lower borrowing costs and hopefully attract new capital.
- Advancing highway, port projects – Major highway and port projects will be advanced through the Transportation Investment Center at the U.S. Department of Transportation. The center will work with local and state governments on project planning and attracting foreign investors through the SelectUSA Program.
A White House statement predicts that these initiatives will help local and state governments complete more needed infrastructure projects “by bringing together the public and private sector to identify challenges and explore creative financing strategies.”
Noting that “private capital is not a substitute for public investment,” the initiative also reports that real opportunity currently exists to bring private capital into the mix to upgrade and maintain the nation’s infrastructure. The President has pledged to continue to seek congressional assistance in making more public funding available and will use his own authority to facilitate more infrastructure investment.
To read the White House fact sheet on this new initiative, click here.
This article originally published on the Texas Government Insider, which is a publication by Strategic Partnerships LLC. It is reprinted here through a news aprtnership between Strategic Partnerships and Corridor News
