The more we build the poorer we get
The citizens of Illinois learned an inconvenient truth last week: their state, which is already going bankrupt, will need to spend $21 billion next year if it wants to keep its basic infrastructure intact. For a state that's been budgeting just $3 billion a year toward maintenance, that's a shocking miscalculation—and one that could be truly devastating for millions of people.But for a Strong Towns advocate? Sadly, that's just basic math.
Today, our President Chuck Marohn explains why he's not surprised by Illinois' infrastructure crisis, and why he believe every state, city, and neighborhood in America should see it as a wake up call if they want to avoid the same fate.
There's no simple playbook for keeping our towns financially strong; the places we love are too complex for that. But there is a path forward—and with your help, we can make the Strong Towns approach the default for every community in North America.
The finances of governments in Illinois — from the state down to local governments — are a disaster. No government leader I’ve ever spoken with has a clue how big the bill for routine maintenance actually is. And these people are not clueless as in dumb; they are clueless as in they really don’t know. Nobody is accurately tracking this stuff.A 57% increase in your total budget just to maintain what you have? Illinois has been printing IOU’s to pay routine bills for years and now we’re being told we need to increase infrastructure spending by 650%. That’s bizarre, and sheer size of it should shake the faith of everyone involved in these decisions.
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