This bank would be capitalized in a way already used by other such institutions. It would monetize existing Treasury debt, thus creating no new debt, would be federally guaranteed, and would pay an interest rate approximately 2% above Treasuries. With the NIB in place, partisanship is removed from designation of projects and over 25 million new, high-wage jobs would be created. The increase in productivity and industry would yield a payback of many times the expenditure, as occurred under all the previous national banks.
Already, 17 state legislatures, including New Jersey, have introduced legislation to Congress urging that such a bank be immediately enacted. The Trenton City Council recently passed a resolution in support of the NIB, and our group has delivered testimony to many other elected bodies and institutions.
There is now a real buzz to bring this kind of National Infrastructure Bank into existence. At the recent Congres sional City Conference of the National League of Cities on March 11, the morning panel was dedicated to infra structure. Congressman and Vice-Chair man of the House Transportation and Infrastructure, Salud Carbajal (California), proposed that a national infrastructure bank be one of the avenues pursued by Congress to address the issue.
Our efforts are aimed at nothing short of creating this very large national bank, which can finally tackle the massive problem that confronts us. We have put off this crisis for far too long, and the day of reckoning has finally arrived. If you would like to join this effort, feel free to contact me.
Stanley Forczek, of the Coalition for National Infrastructure Bank, is a transportation and energy executive. He retired from AMTRAK with over 30 years of service and has also worked as a consultant for a variety of engineering, energy, and financial services firms. He can be reached at sforczek@comcast.net or 215-435-2287.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
