NEW YORK CITY-The New York Building Congress' most recent report How to Save New York City's Infrastructure: Dedicate Revenues suggested that it would be a boon to the city to establish protected revenues to support transportation and other vital infrastructure. This would serve as a new source of funding to complete upgrades, to modernize and complete existing and future infrastructure projects.

In a statement said building congress president Richard T. Anderson, “Without new, dedicated revenue sources, government will not be able to maintain its current level of support for critical capital projects, much less make the additional investments necessary to harden New York City's transportation network and infrastructure in the wake of Superstorm Sandy and climate change.”

A new fund is also necessary due to the fact that the public sector has relied increasingly on debt financing for the vast majority of its capital funding. Since capital needs have increased – and are likely to continue to do so – an alternative to debt financing needs to be created.

In the same statement, building congress infrastructure campaign co-chairman Milo E. Riverso said, “We are rapidly reaching a tipping point in terms of how much new debt we can absorb. All levels of government face a future of having to devote increasing portions of their revenues just to meet debt service obligations – leaving less available to maintain this infrastructure over the long run and build new projects to meet the needs of a growing region.”

The debt burden for the City of New York – which is the largest single investor in its own infrastructure – currently stands at $100 billion and is expected to grow to $109 billion by 2017.

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Protected Revenue for Mass Transit?

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