We're Not in Kansas Anymore

Often when I make the argument that fixing infrastructure has to be a national priority [1], my conservative friends bark back that these projects are a local responsibility (then they'll often say that the worst afflicted cities are run by Democrats, so how dare I blame conservatism for the problem?). Here's a great example of just how far the planet they inhabit is from reality. Mayor Mark Funkhouser of Kansas City, Mo. testified before the Senate [2] about his city's struggles to bring infrastructure up to basic civilizational standards:

In my life prior to becoming Mayor, I was the City auditor, and my office conducted the annual survey of our citizens' satisfaction with City services. Year after year, people in Kansas City tell us that they are most concerned with the condition of the streets, sidewalks, bridges, sewer and storm water drains. Further, when we surveyed business owners within the Kansas City community, we were told the same thing: infrastructure is of paramount importance. This is a refrain I continue to encounter as Mayor within regular town hall meetings throughout the city.

Despite ongoing efforts to leverage existing resources, the scale and cost of a regional highway and road system, along with public transit, water and wastewater services are more than we can shoulder on an already constrained budget. Even if we were to pool our resources with the other municipalities of our region, we wouldn't be able to tackle the daunting challenges now confronting our nation's infrastructure. The expense is far too large, and the challenges too far-reaching to be adequately addressed by local and municipal governments alone. Only the federal government has resources to match the scale of the problems.

Much the same, our City's outdated sewer system allows over 6 billion gallons of sewage overflow every year into our rivers, streams, and urban lakes – presenting health and environmental concerns not only for our neighbors downstream, but also for our own communities. These troubling circumstances mean that we're under the gun from the federal government, and others locally, to improve existing facilities.

Whine, whine, whine! Why can't this Funkmeister guy take personal responsibility for his own city? Pull Kansas City up by its own bootstraps?

Here's why:

the price tag for this little repair job is over $2.3 billion – a hefty chunk of change for a city with a $1.3 billion annual budget, a median household income of $37,000 and 23,000 households with annual incomes of $10,000 or less. Moreover, the cost of construction for large public works projects is growing at a rate far faster than the rate of revenue in our city and in cities across the country.

Merely one necessary infrastructure improvement will cost twice the city's annual budget. That's why we have a federal government in the first place. Seems pretty basic, conservatives.