Cities Getting Screwed on Stimulus Transpo Funds

Back during the stimulus debate I was worried that congress was going to wind up passing too much of the infrastructure money through America’s fifty state governments. State government is, as best I can tell, basically a cesspool whose purpose is to implement everything in the worst possible way. In particular, state government loves to direct infrastructure money away from places where people live (metro areas) and toward backwaters. This is economically inefficient and bad for the environment, so the appeal to state legislators is enormous.

Needless to say that’s what’s happening with ARRA money. In terms of the stimulus-qua-stimulus this probably doesn’t matter, but it also means we’re not going to be reaping nearly the long-term benefits we could or should from new transportation investmenets.