We can build a bridge - or can we?

Steadily and insidiously over time, Rhode Island’s roads and bridges have slid into a state of decrepitude. The reasons for this shameful reality are multifaceted.

One can hoist blame on the lack of attention from the previous three governors, Lincoln Chafee, Don Carcieri, and Lincoln Almond, who neglected to formulate and affect a comprehensive strategy to address this degrading problem. One can also cast aspersions on the General Assembly for not bringing forth and passing a legislative proposal to correct the diminishing integrity of our infrastructure. One might seek culpability in the federal government for the insufficient amount of federal highway funds for the Ocean State. Whomever or whatever is truly responsible for the present pathetic condition of our state’s infrastructure, it has reached a condition of critical mass.

So, our current Gov. Gina Raimondo has proposed her latest idea of tolling 17 bridges in order to produce a dedicated revenue stream to pay back bonds she wishes to float for their refurbishment. To support her drive for the project, she commissioned a study with questionable results.

The Republicans in the Rhode Island House of Representatives have presented an outline of an austere plan that redirects other state expenditures toward road and bridge repair. Adding to the mix of aspirants is U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s recent urging of the U.S. House of Representatives to attack the nation’s decaying highways, and in doing so perhaps securing monies for our state’s sad 6/10 connector. All Rhode Islanders can be sure of is that our disgraceful infrastructure is yet another example of our bloated and inefficient government. Understandably, we have little faith that the governor, the assembly, or our delegation to Washington will actually succeed at achieving anything productive to fix it.

In a political photo opportunity under the precarious 6/10 connector several months back, the governor along with other political notables announced a proposed plan called “RhodeWorks.” The details were nonspecific in many ways, especially when it came to what classifications of trucks would be included in the proposed tolling.

What we did know then was that Raimondo sought between 17 and 22 bridges to have toll gantries installed, with a median toll of $6. Most alarming was the amount of bonded indebtedness. She originally wanted to set a bond offering of 900 million, with the interest costs for those bonds to be $342 million. After a great amount of public outcry from businesses, trucking companies, taxpayers, and financial experts, along with new trepidation expressed by the Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello, Raimondo came up with an alternative plan. Her revised proposal included 17 bridges, a median toll of $3.50, a bond offering of $600 million, and a ridiculous aggregate interest cost of a whopping $578 million. Amazingly, the interest would almost equal the bond amount floated. Would you sign a promissory note where the interest cost practically equaled the amount loaned?

To justify this gamble, Raimondo commissioned an economic impact study by a company named Regional Economic Models Inc. (REMI). The study reinforces the governor’s assertions that this undertaking would be a boon for Rhode Islanders.

However, the statistical presumptions of the study were based upon poor methodology. First, REMI used “Social Accounting” or “Input/Output” tabulation as one standard of evaluation. This assumes the characteristics of interrelationship between industry and households based upon the last few decades of Rhode Island history. Yet, the populous of the Ocean State has greatly changed in recent years, with more middle and upper class people moving out and more lower class and government dependent people moving in. So, this standard has inherent outliers.

Similarly, the second standard REMI used is called “Econometrics,” which is also based on the historical data in regard to spending behavior of firms and households. This too would give an incorrect picture due to the exodus of businesses since the Great Recession and the streamlining of surviving businesses.

Additionally, the third standard is called “Applied General Equilibrium” or “Computable General Equilibrium,” which examines how the economy will change due the proposed policy. These assumptions on increases in housing values, increased demands for labor, and increased demands for consumer goods, even if true would be short lived considering the nature of the temporary construction jobs.

Along with these less than accurate perceptions, the report asserts a dreamlike net increase of 6,000-plus jobs, a rise in the state’s gross domestic product of $538 million, and an increase in cumulative personal income by $521 million by the year 2025. These pie-in-the-sky prognostications may propel the governor’s cause, however erroneously hopeful they are.

Opposing the governor’s plan is the state’s GOP delegation in the General assembly, led by West Warwick Rep. Patricia Morgan. Their idea is a pay-as-you-go plan with a total of $875.8 million to be spent on infrastructure renewal. The monies to be derived from an annual $3 million cut from the state’s film credit program, a $4 million cut from the General Assembly’s budget, a $300,000 cut from the State Medical Advisory Board, a $200,000 cut from the Museum of Labor in Woonsocket, am increasing revenue stream from escalating DMV fees, and various other cost-cutting moves.

Mattiello is adamantly opposed to these suggestions, and considering the miniscule number of Republicans in the chamber, economic pragmatism will once again be customarily ignored by the ruling Democrats.

Adding to this ongoing clash of considerations are the efforts of Sheldon Whitehouse. He is characteristically critical of the U.S. House of Representatives while broaching the subject of highway repair. The Federal Highway Trust Fund will soon run out of money if Congress does not act. Whitehouse stated the problem this way: “We are trying to get pressure going in the House of Representatives to do something about highways.” And in reference to the proficiency of the House, he said: “We had a very short-term extension; it is getting ready to run out. We see right now a House of Representatives, particularly a Republican caucus that is behaving like a bag of rabid ferrets.”

Whitehouse supports a bill called the “Drive Act” that would address the national problem while possibly simultaneously taking away some of the state’s financial burden for our road and bridge repair. Some of those ferrets will have to be corralled to make the Drive Act law, and in doing so help the Ocean State out of its dire dilemma.

According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, 167 of our bridges are structurally deficient, 41 percent of our roads are in poor condition, and $496 million dollars are spent yearly by motorists to repair their vehicles injured by the substandard condition of our roads. The governor seems to have the right concerns. However, she cannot extract herself from the Democrat notion of accumulating more debt to effectuate the cure rather than embracing austerity.

Whereas the Republicans have the right mindset to not erect gantries, which will undoubtedly lead to tolling every vehicle eventually, the cuts they proposed could be modified to be more egalitarian. Perhaps an across-the-board mandatory small percentage reduction in expenditures in all state government departments would suffice to produce the necessary revenue to affect the repairs.

Also, if Whitehouse can somehow reach beyond snarky quips and convince his counterparts in D.C. to actually address the national infrastructure problem, then maybe our state would benefit.

One thing is clear – we are in descent as a state, and have been for some time. We will never rebound economically unless we possess the rudimentary basis for commerce to thrive, which is a sound and reliable infrastructure. As the country singers The Judds once crooned, “We can built a bridge if our heart is true.” Hopefully, the song was correct.