November 1, 2008

CFD Financing: A New Tool for Developing Regional Infrastructure

If there’s one theme common across Washington, it’s that we’ve neglected to fund infrastructure improvements at the level necessary to sustain economic growth. We’ve taken small bites at the apple by increasing gas taxes to help fund the most urgent road projects, increasing fares on our state ferries and implementing congestion tolling on SR 167 (with other state highway projects sure to follow), while a slew of agencies and committees look at creative ways to find billions more to fund a deep backlog of big public works. But while federal (hopefully) and state funding may provide relief on some of the larger road projects, smaller projects — community-wide roads and utilities, for example — go wanting because, frankly, voters are tapped out and local governments in Washington don’t have the tools available to finance these needed improvements without affecting other municipal functions. View full article (PDF).

This article first appeared in Washington CEO magazine.