Infrastructure

I hope that driving on the newly repaved sections of Interstate 95 - without paying tolls - will be a reminder to everyone of how well-maintained infrastructure (highways, bridges, water and sewer lines) make life for all of us more comfortable as well as safer. The U.S. is seriously behind in maintaining and upgrading its infrastructure, much of which was built in the decades after World War II. For the last 20 years we have been starving our public sector by cutting taxes to the point where we now worry about not having enough money even to pay our police, firefighters and teachers.

State officials approved more than $161 million in school construction funding Wednesday that will allow school systems in the Baltimore area to undertake renovation projects, tackling problems that include sweltering and overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated buildings and amenities. The Maryland Board of Public Works approved the last round of construction dollars being doled out to schools for fiscal year 2013. The state approved $187.5 million in funding in January, bringing the total amount for school construction projects to nearly $350 million, a more than $85 million increase from fiscal year 2012.

The next president will have a unique opportunity to leave a powerful legacy by fixing the nation's infrastructure. The perilous state of our transportation, power, water and other basic systems is well documented. Capital investment for transportation alone will require $220 billion annually for the next 30 years. Infrastructure, while basic to our lives and standard of living, has not previously risen to the level of war, jobs and health care in the political psyche. Fortunately, both major presidential candidates have referred to infrastructure as a key element of their economic recovery plans.

America is at its best when our guiding principles of free enterprise and giving people a helping hand work together. The free enterprise system created our national wealth and employment opportunities. However, free enterprise also eliminated 3 million American jobs in the 2000s while creating 2.4 million new jobs overseas. Meanwhile, Apple set new records for "legal" tax evasion. The free enterprise system is focused on creating jobs for minimum wages, not necessarily in the U.S. That implies that the best opportunities for creating jobs are in the public sector.

America is at its best when our guiding principles of free enterprise and giving people a helping hand work together. The free enterprise system created our national wealth and employment opportunities. However, free enterprise also eliminated 3 million American jobs in the 2000s while creating 2.4 million new jobs overseas. Meanwhile, Apple set new records for "legal" tax evasion. The free enterprise system is focused on creating jobs for minimum wages, not necessarily in the U.S. That implies that the best opportunities for creating jobs are in the public sector.

We've been working on the infrastructure, all the livelong day. We've been working on the infrastructure, and our tempers are starting to fray.Havre de Grace. -- When they rebuilt the stone springhouse, sometime in the 1930s, and laid those state-of-the-art copper pipes to the house and the barn, they probably didn't know they were installing infrastructure. Most likely, they thought it was just new plumbing they were putting in.They did a pretty good job of it, and 60 years later the springhouse is still in good repair.

President Obama pledged to make job creation a top priority in his State of the Union address, and his appearance at a Highlandtown machine shop last Friday confirmed it. But while his proposed $5,000-per-new-job tax credit for small businesses sounds helpful, it's a relatively paltry incentive and ripe for abuse from firms that are bound to find ways to collect the credit without necessarily expanding their payroll. If voters are angry that so much money went to bail out banks, will they necessarily be excited by the prospect of small businesses getting a one-year $33 billion hand-out and Social Security discount?

Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake joined a group of governors, mayors and Cabinet secretaries at the White House on Monday for an event with President Barack Obama highlighting infrastructure investments. The gathering in the State Dining Room was part of a fresh attempt by the administration to focus attention on Obama's plan to invest $50 billion in highway, rail and runway improvements. Those on hand included Pennsylvania Gov. Edward G. Rendell and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and mayors from Philadelphia, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Charleston, S.C. Among the topics on the agenda was a new administration report that says 80 percent of the transportation infrastructure jobs would be created in the construction, manufacturing and retail trade sectors, and that the work would go to sectors of the economy battered by high joblessness.

A new report from Johns Hopkins University says the Baltimore region's communications and transportation networks are lagging behind the region's shift to a service economy.In response, it argued, metropolitan Baltimore needs a coordinated plan to upgrade regional telecommunications so that it becomes the nation's first "smart region."The report is set for formal release Monday, but Hopkins made the study available yesterday. University spokesman Dennis O'Shea said its primary authors, Lester M. Salamon and Michael E. Bell, were traveling and not available for comment.

W ith unemployment in double-digit territory and the nation still facing a crisis of failing roads, bridges and transit systems, the need for a second federal stimulus program is clear. But in typical Washington fashion, we just can't call it something so politically unpalatable. Never mind that the Republicans and moderate Democrats in Congress seem content to add to the nation's budget deficit with costly and potentially lengthy military commitments to Afghanistan. The term "second stimulus" sounds too much like a government boondoggle to the born-against deficit hawks who kept so quiet for the previous eight years.

Over the past month, the average price of a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline has increased 25 cents in Maryland. As far as anyone can tell, the motorists of this state received no particular benefit from the change in price - aside from a lighter wallet or purse. Gasoline prices may rise higher yet, as they often do in the summer months when demand increases. Or, if the political tensions with Iran and its nuclear program dissipate, prices may actually go down as fear of supply interruptions diminishes.

Stop the presses: A new report finds that Maryland's 15-year-old Smart Growth law isn't working very well. That's hardly news. The state's own data have shown for years that more land continues to be developed for homes in the countryside instead of in urbanized areas, where growth is meant to go under the 1997 law. But the report issued Wednesday by the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education at the University...

Just doin' the Google and putting the pieces together, in an attempt to determine Christopher H. Lee's political affiliation (without actually asking the man), and the good guess was Republican. Years ago, after his graduation from the Johns Hopkins University, Mr. Lee wrote speeches for two Republican lawmakers from Ohio, and in 1998, when he started his Highstar Capital investment company, he did so with uber-lobbyist and GOP insider Wayne Berman. Plus, he lives in Ruxton. So that pretty much marks Mr. Lee as a Republican, and probably a mainstream Romney Republican as opposed to the tea party kind of Republican.

A Maryland financier who helped privatize the Seagirt Marine Terminal in 2009 is trying to sell Congress on an ambitious, $250 billion plan he says would modernize the nation's crumbling infrastructure while creating millions of jobs. Christopher H. Lee, whose investment firm owns the company managing the terminal, is pressing lawmakers on Capitol Hill to create an independent board that would oversee billions of dollars in highway, airport and mass transit projects. His plan also calls for speeding government approval of those projects.

Weapons-makers, ideologues and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta are busy whipping up fears in reaction to scheduled reductions in our bloated military budget. Don't be fooled. These cuts will not put our security at risk, though they will cut into profits and executive pay at certain defense-establishment corporations. In this time of debilitating unemployment and financial disaster, our slavish devotion to military spending undercuts our opportunity to rebuild America. Military expenditures have doubled in constant dollars since 2001.

I hope that driving on the newly repaved sections of Interstate 95 - without paying tolls - will be a reminder to everyone of how well-maintained infrastructure (highways, bridges, water and sewer lines) make life for all of us more comfortable as well as safer. The U.S. is seriously behind in maintaining and upgrading its infrastructure, much of which was built in the decades after World War II. For the last 20 years we have been starving our public sector by cutting taxes to the point where we now worry about not having enough money even to pay our police, firefighters and teachers.

Keeping Baltimore County -- or at least its roads, bridges, alleys and underground pipes -- from falling apart is the task of a new infrastructure committee.Jobs like relining old sewer pipes may lack the glamour of shiny new projects in the eyes of politicians looking for bragging rights, but they have to be paid for just the same -- and money is tight."People don't see maintenance," said the county budget director, Fred Homan, as the committee held its first meeting last week and looked at competing needs -- and the problem of too little money to pay for them all.Reconstruction of the old drawbridge that carries Dundalk's Peninsula Expressway over Bear Creek alone will cost $6 million of the county's $10 million in federal bridge replacement funds -- this at a time when 204 of the county's 382 bridges are posted with weight restrictions because of structural problems.

Gov. Martin O'Malley has made two wise decisions when it comes to legislation to help create jobs in Maryland. The first is to focus on expanding infrastructure spending. That's something only government can do, and it will create jobs right away in struggling industries while providing long-term benefits for Maryland's economy. The second is to wait to handle the matter during the regular legislative session that convenes in January rather than trying to cram something through during this week's special legislative session.

One can scarcely blame Gov. Martin O'Malley for wanting to do something about jobs. Maryland's unemployment rate, while still well below the national average, is high and showing little sign of improvement despite the boost from the federal military base realignment program that has sent thousands of defense-related jobs to the state in recent years. Given that Mr. O'Malley supports President Barack Obama's jobs bill and, as chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, also harbors his own aspiration for the national political stage, his announcement Wednesday that he will offer his own jobs bill at a special session next month comes as no surprise.