It’s Time for Infrastructure Improvements to Flow

As the battle to properly define the role of government continues to be debated across America, there is a renewed discussion about the importance of infrastructure, which includes water and sewage systems, roads, bridges and high-speed internet access.

The reasons for the renewed discussion are pretty simple.

First, there can be little question that the role of providing infrastructure is a basic core function of government, mainly because the projects are simply not cost-effective for the private sector.

If government doesn’t get involved, at least to some degree, nothing gets done. Furthermore, private businesses usually won’t invest in areas lacking basic infrastructure.

Like the great James Earl Jones once said, “If you build it, they will come.”

Second, infrastructure creates real American jobs. You can’t outsource digging a sewer line or building a highway. I firmly believe President Obama made a critical error when the federal stimulus was passed—we should have invested in our own infrastructure instead of giving billions of dollars back to the financial institutions that wrecked our economy.

The financial sector should have been forced to invest in the American people instead of us investing more money back into them after they brutally violated the public trust in the name of greed.

Finally, we’re talking about infrastructure because we really need to—bridges are falling down and roads are falling apart. Wells are drying up, raw sewage is running into our streams and people are being deprived of educational and business opportunities because they lack Internet access. There are no shortcuts here—this stuff has to be built and maintained, and it isn’t cheap.

I have someone on my staff who serves as an economic resource and infrastructure specialist, and over the past five years, we have worked to help thousands of families and businesses get access to much-needed infrastructure improvements.

Last week, , Independence, Jefferson, Mt. Pleasant and Robinson townships. This service will greatly help those residents relying on wells of questionable safety and reliability, often forced to spend hundreds of dollars per month hauling water into their homes.

This specific set of line expansions came as a result of literally years of painstaking negotiations with Pennsylvania American Water Company and the Office of the Consumer Advocate.

No more than 10 minutes after the press release was sent out, the phones started ringing in my office. People wanted to know (and not all of them in a nice way) why they weren’t getting public water service. The answer is a simple one, although not necessarily one many people want to hear.

Public infrastructure projects are complicated, expensive and usually take a very long time to become a reality. The people who will benefit have worked tirelessly with us to organize their neighborhoods, testify at hearings and provide information. They have made it easier to help us help them—further proof that working together can yield actual positive results.

But there is also an implied responsibility on the part of local government agencies to make the projects cost-effective and efficient. Unfortunately, that hasn’t always happened around here in recent years.

Municipal authorities need to remember that they exist to serve the public, not score jobs for their family members on the public payroll. Tap-in and monthly user fees have to be reasonable, with payment plans to allow residents to enjoy their right to basic infrastructure without going broke. The negligence of some local authorities have led me to introduce sweeping municipal authority reform legislation in Harrisburg.

Infrastructure is the key to reviving our economy, both locally and nationally. We have the need, we have the manpower, now we need the political will to get it done the right way to serve the public and create much-needed jobs.

It’s time to go to work.