Transportation and Community Revitalization a Focus of Obama's 2014 Budget

Jason Jordan explains some of the key planning-related proposals that comprise the President's wish list for new investment in infrastructure and community revitalization. Among the funding requests of note are a $200 million grant program targeted at building climate change resilience and "a new 'Project Rebuild' initiative that will focus on public-private land banking, grants, and loan subsidies to help communities hit hard by foreclosures and blight to revitalize neighborhoods."

"However," notes Jordan, "the budget also calls for significant cuts to EPA’s water infrastructure revolving loan funds and changes the tax code, including a cap on the tax-exemption for interest on municipal bonds and other tax deductions, which could increase local project costs."

Looking more closely at the transportation-related spending, Angie Schmitt finds, "a solidly progressive transportation budget that calls for increased overall spending and continued investment in passenger rail." While many of the goals will be of no surprise to anyone that's followed the President's public statements since his State of the Union address (and long before), "[t]he administration’s budget also demonstrates that the president has not abandoned his high-speed rail ambitions," with $40 billion proposed for passenger rail programs over five years.