The "National View" columns from Larry Willis and Ed Mortimer on the Aug. 7 News Tribune Opinion page addressed a diversity of funding options for public infrastructure. Left out of their mixes of funds was money created by the Federal Reserve System. The Federal Reserve expands the national money total to support growth in population and per-capita productivity.
Devoting some of this expansion to pay for publicly owned physical goods - such as roads, bridges, shipping locks, or pipes - has a precedent. The federal Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of 2015 is partially funded ($36 billion worth) with money that had been created by the Federal Reserve.
FAST Act dollars are not for state, tribal, or local projects. But federal funds could be allocated to those governments. That also has a precedent. The State and Local Fiscal Assistance Act (known as general revenue sharing), the brainchild of University of Minnesota economist Walter Heller, passed down federal dollars from 1972-1986. It was known for its low administrative costs. Something like that could be developed specifically for non-federal public physical infrastructure, using Federal Reserve money to help shore up America.
As long as we are being asked to be creative in paying for needed infrastructure, let's add this choice to the political menu.
David Schimpf
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Duluth
