Time to Repair and Restore

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No one knows how much it would cost to modernize the entire infrastructure of the U.S. economy. Pat Choate, co-author of the America in Ruins study, estimates that the task could take as much as $3 trillion, roughly the amount of the annual gross national product at present. Amitai Etzioni, director of the Center for Policy Research, believes that more than $400 billion should be invested over the next decade on railroads, highways and bridges. The total value of all government-sponsored construction on those projects last year was $23.4 billion.

President Reagan does not intend to launch a major new public works spending program. In fact, as part of his budget-cut plans, he hopes to carve $31 billion out of federal spending on transportation over the next five years. The highway program would lose $11.2 billion, and mass-transit aid would be trimmed by $12 billion. Though Congress is expected to approve a large portion of the Reagan cuts, some lawmakers argue that the reductions are shortsighted. Says Democratic Congressman Henry Reuss of Wisconsin, the chairman of the Joint Economic Committee: "The whole thrust of the Reagan program is to downgrade the infrastructure. What has been a serious worry will now become a disaster."

Administration officials argue in response that the problems can be solved most efficiently by state and local governments. Says Secretary of Transportation Drew Lewis: "It's a question of whether we collect a dollar in taxes, skim 15¢ or 20¢ off through our bureaucratic regime in Washington and send 80¢ back to the states, or whether we cut federal taxes and let the states handle it locally."

Moreover, many urban planners are concerned that states and cities have become federal-aid junkies. U.S. Government contributions to state and local public works expenditures have jumped from 10% in 1957 to about 40% now. Concludes George Peterson, a public finance specialist at Washington's Urban Institute: "State and local governments must stop lobbying for more federal assistance and get about the job of setting their own priorities, reassessing their needs and collecting funds at the local level to pay for them."

At a time when taxes are already painfully high, it will not be easy to raise money to rebuild roads, enlarge ports or repair bridges. But neither can the U.S. continue its past policy of "build it and forget it." The longer that needed restoration is postponed, the more costly it becomes. America cannot afford to starve vital parts of its infrastructure—that network of arteries that nourish the heart of the economy.

—By Charles Alexander. Reported by Gisela Bolte/Washington and Denise Worrell/New York with other U.S. bureaus