Spending Plan An Uneven Road

While previous administrations, Republican and Democrat, relied on traditional federal-state-local funding mechanisms — with private investment when feasible — Trump's budget puts a heavy emphasis on private-sector incentives. Trump's budget director, Mick Mulvaney, said the idea is to "leverage" private-sector investment on a 5-1 ratio — five dollars in private funds for every dollar of public money. New York's transportation network has regional and national significance and the scope and scale of the projects requires the attention of every level of government. What is not immediately apparent is that while the budget funds $200 billion in new federal infrastructure spending, it cuts $206 billion in existing infrastructure programs over the same 2018-2027 time period. In New York, private money from airlines and other sources went into renovations at New York City's JFK and LaGuardia airports. Since they easily generate income through passenger traffic, such projects can be undertaken today with or without the Trump formula. In 2009 at the height of the Great Recession when unemployment reached 10 percent, President Barack Obama and a Democratic-controlled Congress pushed through a stimulus package that involved significant money for highways and other infrastructure projects. Kajal Lahiri, an economist at the University at Albany who studies infrastructure financing, questions whether Trump's vision of additional private-sector investment is practical or appropriate.