Infrastructure

Water utility executives from 47 states stormed Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to repeal a ban on the use of tax-exempt bonds for projects already benefiting from certain federal assistance.

Airport capital needs will total $75.7 billion through 2019 to keep pace with increases in passenger and cargo loads.

State and local officials see chaos ahead for highway funding if Congress doesn't quickly pass a long-term transportation bill.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and two fellow Democrats have introduced a bill that would provide $50 million in federal grants for each of fiscal years 2015-2019 to help states, local communities, and tribal governments upgrade their water and wastewater infrastructure systems.

The Arizona Department of Transportation can begin acquiring right-of-way for the 22-mile-long Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway after the Federal Highway Administration issued its record of decision approving the project.

A federal ruling against states may set a precedent for risky local spending on broadband, credit analysts said.

The Highway Trust Fund will be insolvent this summer without new revenues to bolster gas tax collections, CBO says in new analysis.

A higher federal gasoline tax offset by an income tax rebate could unsnarl the revenue gridlock in Congress blocking a multiyear highway bill, ARTBA says.

Given the magnitude and condition of U.S. infrastructure and the Federal push to "level the playing field" by expanding the availability of tax-exempt finance for public-private partnership procurements, the U.S. is poised to become a very active and substantial P3 market.

Road builders association says it has a plan to untangle the congressional gridlock on federal transportation funding.

Increasing the federal gasoline tax by 10 cents per gallon to generate enough revenue to fully fund a multiyear federal transportation bill could, in turn, be offset by a 2% drop in the top margin income tax rate, the nonpartisan Tax Foundation said in a recent report.

The Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District would like to ask voters next year to support $919 million in new borrowing for wastewater projects and to revamp its stormwater fee structure.

Pressure from constituents may be best hope for quick congressional approval of a long-term federal transportation bill, industry advocates say.

States seeking to boost their transportation funding are finding gasoline tax increases as the most effective path to progress.

An airline group asks Congress to oppose a proposal by airports for a 90% boost in a federal passenger fee that funds capital projects.

The House passes a four-year Amtrak funding bill that requires a study of high-speed passenger rail from Washington, D.C., to Boston.

Congress is not likely to pass a long-term transportation funding bill or tax reform legislation of any kind until 2017, after the presidential election, lobbyists said at the National Municipal Bond Summit earlier this week.

Panelists at an American Enterprise Institute event expressed concerns with proposals from Rep. John Delaney, D-Md., to create a national infrastructure bank and fund infrastructure through repatriation of foreign earnings.

Funding boost in Obama's $478 billion transportation proposal needed so state agencies can build significant projects, Foxx says.

Political controversies in Washington, D.C. are clouding the future of infrastructure funding in the United States, experts said at the National Municipal Bond Summit.