(Host) Vermont’s congressional delegation is supporting a plan to quickly rebuild the country’s transportation infrastructure.
The key to the plan is a provision proposed by a Vermont state senator.
VPR’s Bob Kinzel reports:
(Kinzel) Lamoille senator Susan Bartlett says her plan is really quite simple. For the next 18 months, the federal government should drop its requirement that states provide a match for a variety of transportation and environmental projects. These matches usually amount to between 10 and 20% of the cost of the project.
Bartlett first raised this issue at a recent Statehouse business roundtable held by Congressman Peter Welch.
Bartlett urged Welch to include this plan in a second economic stimulus package that will be considered by Congress next week.
She says the plan is needed because many states are facing tough budget times and aren’t able to come up with their matching funds. Welch thought Bartlett’s proposal was a great idea:
(Welch) "Our states are under budget pressures and if the point of a stimulus is to get people to work and repair roads and bridges but the state doesn’t have the funds for the match then the stimulus will fail so I’d like to see if we can include in the stimulus a waiver to get that money to work."
The plan is also gaining momentum in the U.S. Senate. Senator Bernie Sanders says there’s a lot of interest in using this approach:
(Sanders) "If we’re serious about rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure if we’re serious about putting people to work in doing that it makes no sense to delay these projects because states are running deficits now and don’t have the money to put up their matching portions."
Speaking from the Republican Governors’ Association meeting in Miami, Governor Jim Douglas threw his support behind the plan:
(Douglas) "I think most governors believe that transportation infrastructure is a good way to put people to work and improve the economic climate in our state since we’re already maxing out all the match resources that are available the only way we can really get a significant infusion into the construction industry and help our roads and bridges is for the Congress to appropriate those dollars without a match requirement."
By waiving the state match, it means that more federal money will be needed to fund each individual project and state officials say this development could result in a significant delay for low priority projects.
But they argue that in today’s economic climate, it’s unlikely that these projects were ever going to be built.
For VPR News I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier.