<p>President Trump will unveil his $1 trillion infrastructure plan during his first State of the Union address next Tuesday. ;</p>
<p>An undated draft of the plan was leaked on Monday.</p>
<p>The 6-page document, which outlines a massive plan to revitalize America&rsquo;s roadways and transit systems, suggests up to 50% of appropriations will go into an &ldquo;infrastructure incentives initiative&rdquo; that will use grants to promote private and local investment. ;</p>
<p>A full quarter of appropriations will be set aside for use in rural areas, and 10% will go into a so-called &ldquo;transformative projects program&rdquo; that will provide &ldquo;federal funding and technical assistance&rdquo; for initiatives that are unable to obtain private funding. ;</p>
<p>President Trump ;touched on the plan Wednesday during a speech to mayors, suggesting it could &ldquo;end up being about $1.7 trillion.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re partnering with the state and local government, like yours, to find the most innovative ways to rebuild our roads, bridges, waterways, and airports. Very important words: on time and under budget,&rdquo; said Trump. &ldquo;Have you heard those words before? You don&rsquo;t hear them too much in government, right?&rdquo;</p>
<p>Trump also promised to send military equipment back to communities &ndash; something the previous administration tried to stop. ;</p>
<p>&ldquo;We&rsquo;re supporting our local police beyond what we&rsquo;ve ever done,&rdquo; said Trump. &ldquo;We have a lot of excess military equipment, and we&rsquo;re sending it to your police as they need it. And it&rsquo;s made a tremendous difference.&rdquo; ;</p>
<p><strong>Pushback ;</strong></p>
<p>Critics argue the infrastructure plan ignores poor areas and provides funding for cities that are already flourishing.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Basically the whole structure [of this proposal] is orientated around cities that are not only wealthy but also economically healthy,&rdquo; argues Yonah Freemark, a transportation expert currently studying at MIT. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s like a redistribution of the national resources toward cities that already have more money.&rdquo;</p>
<p>The criteria for evaluating whether a project should receive funding focuses almost entirely on that project&rsquo;s ability to secure non-federal financing. The project&rsquo;s potential for economic and social returns is just an afterthought, complains Freemark. ;</p>
<p>The Obama Administration used a &ldquo;radically different approach,&rdquo; where evaluation focused mainly on a project&rsquo;s merits &ndash; such as whether it would improve the environment or address poverty. ;</p>
<p>A city can obtain its own funding through tax revenue or private investment &ndash; both options that will be more difficult for poor cities.</p>
<p>&ldquo;If you&rsquo;re in a place like Detroit where the market is not in great condition and there isn&rsquo;t, for example, much traffic congestion, then it could be difficult to attract private companies to pay for the new toll roads if they don&rsquo;t feel like people are going to pay the toll,&rdquo; explains Freemark. ;</p>
<p>Trump&#8217;s plan also prioritizes high-income neighborhoods by requiring transit projects to have a high return on investment. In other words, a city seeking a new subway route would need to prove that the route would boost that area&rsquo;s property values enough to cover the project&rsquo;s cost.</p>
<p>This will be impossible for poor areas where property values are not increasing, argues Freemark, and those ;areas are the ones most in need of public transit. ;</p>
<p><strong>Author&rsquo;s Note:</strong> Infrastructure reform is something that was promised during Trump&rsquo;s presidential campaign. It will tough to get through and will likely add to the deficit, but a better economy should be able to pay for it. ; ;</p>