It’s time to shake up Oregon’s infrastructure investment trend

InsideCapitolDome

It’s time to shake up Oregon’s infrastructure investment trend

InsideCapitolDome
With campaign season in full swing, there’s no shortage of candidates talking about the need for quality jobs.

It’s time to shake up Oregon’s infrastructure investment trend

With campaign season in full swing, there’s no shortage of candidates talking about the need for quality jobs. Add that to headlines about a massive earthquake predicted to strike the Pacific Northwest, and you’d think Oregon would be investing heavily in upgrading our public infrastructure.

Instead, Oregon’s investment in infrastructure has been shrinking, relative to the size of the state’s economy.

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That’s one of the findings of It’s Time for States to Invest in Infrastructure, a study published today by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. It shows that nationally, state and local spending as a share of gross domestic product (GDP, or “the economy”) is at a 30 year low. The study helps explain why the American Society of Civil Engineers rates the whole of U.S. infrastructure as a D+ or “poor.”

Oregon is no exception. Between fiscal years 2002 and 2013, Oregon state and local infrastructure investment as a share of GDP decreased. Oregon’s decline was the 14th greatest (worst) of all the states. In 2013, Oregon’s infrastructure investment made up just 4.2 percent of total state expenditures.

State infrastructure spending, as the study makes clear, is crucial to maintaining our nation’s bridges and roads. In fact, state and local governments “own over 90 percent of non-defense public infrastructure assets, and although the federal government assists in the building and maintenance of these assets, state and local governments pay 75 percent of the cost of maintaining and improving them.”

Maintaining and improving our public infrastructure is a worthwhile investment — a key point Oregon policymakers should recognize. Research shows targeted public infrastructure spending can boost the economy and improve a state’s quality of life, environment and economic opportunity. It does that by creating many high paying jobs.

Such investments can also help minimize the damage done to Oregonians from the massive earthquake that one day will rattle our region.

 


This post was originally published on www.blueoregon.com on February 23, 2016. The original post can be found at http://www.blueoregon.com/2016/02/shake-up-oregons-infrastructure-investment-trend/.

 

 

More about: economic stimulusinfrastructure

Charles Sheketoff

Charles Sheketoff

Chuck Sheketoff is a founder of the Oregon Center for Public Policy and former Executive Director. Incorporated in 1995, the Center was launched with Chuck as its first executive director after Chuck received the "public interest pioneer award" from the Stern Family Fund in September, 1997. Prior to starting the Center, Chuck lobbied the Oregon legislature on tax policies and on human services programs' policies and budgets on behalf of legal aid clients (1992 to 1996) and the low-income clients of the Oregon Law Center (1997).

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