I wrote on Wednesday about why I think more infrastructure investments and continued movement on visionary projects is what Madison needs right now. I wrote about the low interest rates we're experiencing and how much trades people need the jobs.
There's another reason to keep investing: the economy is coming back, but not entirely in the right way. Wisconsin and many other states are seeing more optimistic long-run revenue projections. But most of that good news isn't based on broad job growth or improvements in the economy.
Consider California, which recently saw its economic fortunes rise by $6.6 billion (the state still has a significant deficit). But the uptick is due to prosperity among the highest income workers and the run up in the stock market. Overall personal income there went up only 1%.
More jobs are created for every dollar invested in infrastructure then by a corresponding amount of tax cuts. So continuing strong capital investments is an important way of broadening the economic recovery. And the recovery itself, if it becomes more generalized, will pay back those very investments over the next decade.
