Read my latest flash, Venison, at 52|250.

A lot has been said about how the bridge collapse in Minneapolis is yet another example of the poor state of US infrastructure. An Alternet article has even focused on the links between this sort of accident and conservative “small-government” ideology. What I don’t think has been explored is the relationship between this sort of incident and increasing centralization. A large percentage of the work done by any state or local transportation agency today involves applying for federal grants. This means meeting requirements that may not really have anything to do with local needs and realities.

Of course, I can’t say that this particular collapse was directly linked to this situation; it would be hard to prove any such thing. I do know, however, that the system that sends most of the tax base to Washington D.C. so that states, counties, and cities have to apply to get that money back can only get in the way of meeting real local needs, since it gives priority to the sort of projects that can win federal approval.

There are some cases in which it makes sense for the federal government to control infrastructure maintenance and development– interstate power grids, for instance– but the percentage of the tax base that goes to the federal governemnet should reflect the percentage required for such necessarily federal projects. If that were the case, perhaps there would be less money to spend on creating refugees or on enforcing drug laws in states that don’t want them to be enforced.

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