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Regarding the dystopian nightmare of the Maui fires, we simply have to do better when local officials know what has to be done, but have trouble finding the money to do it. The trouble that small towns like Lahaina have is that they don’t have the resources to design infrastructure nor wade through the complex and time-consuming application procedures for money in the Inflation Reduction Act.
Local officials should have another option to secure funds for needed infrastructure from a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB), with very long-term, low-interest-rate off-budget loans that are paid back through small additional fees on whatever the infrastructure produces, such as better electrical grids or increased tax revenue from more people working at higher wages.
This is how the Oakland/San Francisco Bay Bridge, the Holland Tunnel, the Hoover and Parker dams, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, major oil pipelines and many other major infrastructure projects were financed off-budget in the 1930s and 1940s. Hawaii political leaders need to help pass H.R. 4052, a bill in Congress to resurrect the NIB.
Don Siefkes
San Leandro, Calif.
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