Anti-Tax Sentiments Worsen US Infrastructure Problems

The anti-government and anti-tax mantra Ronald Regan promoted in the 80s remains in many Americans until today.

But this sentiment that drove under-taxation in the country resulted in underfunding some essential services. Poor communities and cities are most affected by its consequences when this happens.

The presence of lead in the water supply in Flint, Michigan, Newark, and New Jersey and, more recently, the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi, when more than 150,000 people in its capital were without access to safe drinking water, is an example.

When Jackson’s water treatment facility failed due to flooding, city officials started dispensing bottled water using 108 tractor-trailers as an emergency response. Its governor, Tate Reeves, deployed 600 Mississippi National Guards to distribute water to all seven distribution sites.

The article “Jackson Mississippi and America’s Infrastructure Crisis” says the biggest drawback to under-taxation in the US is not the failure to fund the daily cost of government service but its failure to invest in physical infrastructure and the long-term capital projects that cost billions of dollars and enable transportation, water, waste, and sewage systems to operate.

In Jackson, Mississippi, the State’s largest city, its water system has been struggling for years due to its age and insufficient funds for essential infrastructure upgrades.

For years the city’s majority-Black leaders have been asking for additional funding from the State, but little has come of it. Another problem is the steady exodus of white residents, who brought their tax dollars with them.

Jackson’s residents are 80% black, and 25% live in poverty. Its recurrent water system breakdowns make the city’s water unsafe for residents to drink from the tap, use it to brush their teeth, and wash dishes without boiling the water first. The EPA notes that the city has already issued 300 boil notices in the past two years.

What Jackson, Mississippi, is experiencing also happens in some other cities in the US. Berkeley Professor David Sedlak says:

“Due to our complacency, only a serious crisis that could leave people without access to tap water is likely to free up the financial resources needed to bring water infrastructure—which in many places still includes pipes from the 1800s—into the 21st century. Absent an emergency; cash-strapped water utility managers will continue to deal with aging water systems by economizing on routine maintenance and deferring upgrades for as long as possible. This chronic funding shortage is so dire that the American Society of Civil Engineers has awarded the drinking water infrastructure of the United States grades of D-minus or D for over a decade.”

New York City is an exception.

The city invested $6 billion to open the third tunnel to allow the city to fix the leaking problem of its two 100-year-old tunnels. The leaking tunnels mean that one-third of the water sources outside the city go to waste.

Fixing long-term infrastructure problems suggests New Yorkers are paying higher water bills, but they have seen the situation’s urgency. By not kicking the proverbial can down the road, they don’t wait for the next generation to pay for costs.

Another reason for low tax rates and disinvestment in infrastructure is that people refuse to pay for public infrastructure because they don’t trust that the government will do an excellent job. America’s growing income inequality also means some people are too poor to pay taxes.

The article notes that the infrastructure Americans use today was paid for by their grandparents and even great-grandparents 50 to 100 years ago.

But, unfortunately, by deferring and underpaying for maintenance and upgrades, the present generation leaves it to their kids or grandkids to pay for them.