InfrastructureObama promotes private-public infrastructure investment plan

Published 1 April 2013

President Barack Obama spent Friday afternoon at the Port of Miami where he announced his plan to attract private investment for big infrastructure projects. One such project is  a $2 billion upgrading plan for the port. Obama also he would continue his push for a $100 billion infrastructure bank.

President Barack Obama spent Friday afternoon at the Port of Miami where he announced his plan to attract private investment for big infrastructure projects. One such project is  a $2 billion upgrading plan for the port.

The Miami Herald reports that the Obama administration will propose tax breaks for foreign pension funds to make it more attractive for them to invest in improving U.S. infrastructure. Obama will also continue his push for a $100 billion infrastructure bank.

One of the president’s proposals will raise caps on state and local bonds in order to lower financing costs and make such bonds available for more types of projects. Obama also announced a plan to use $4 billion for two programs which provide loans and grants to public-works project whicht are intended to attract private investment for the upgrade.

Alan Krueger, chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, said that this is a good time to concentrate on public works because “no industry was harder hit” than construction during the recession.

Last month Obama proposed a program to use $40 billion in public money to improve roads and bridges around the country, but Republicans  opposed it as part of a broader opposition to  new spending which would  increase the deficit.

The port development  projects   include a $1 billion tunnel under Biscayne Bay in order to reduce cargo traffic on roads, and a $180 million dredging at the port to accommodate larger ships after the widening of the Panama Canal. Florida governor Rick Scott has been lobbying the administration to reimburse the state for the $77 million the state invested in the port dredging. The White House said that the federal government has provided a $340 million loan to help finance the tunnel project and a $23 million grant to restore a freight rail service between the port and the Florida East Coast Railway.

Florida says that dredging the port and allowing bigger ships to dock in it would create more than 30,000 new jobs in the state.