Builders Want Government to Keep on Spending

NEW YORK CITY-Construction spending citywide, which peaked at $31.1 billion in 2007 and fell as the downturn took hold, will rise again next year and bump back up to $28.6 billion in 2012. That’s if the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s capital projects program for fiscal ’12 is fully funded—a big “if” at the moment, the New York Building Congress’ Richard T. Anderson said Tuesday. The agency’s five-year capital program is only funded through 2011.

Assuming that the funding comes through, the MTA’s projected $4.1-billion increase in construction spending for ’12 represents 14% of all spending forecast for that year, the Building Congress says in its “NYC Construction Outlook 2010-2012” report. For that reason, said Anderson, president of the Building Congress, priority number one for all stakeholders is securing additional funding for the transit agency’s capital plan.