There’s more than $1 trillion in new infrastructure funding, and state and local governments don’t have the staff to spend it themselves.
State departments of transportation, regional transit agencies and local administrations of all sizes have hollowed out their workforce and handed over more power to consultants and contractors — often without adequate oversight.
“We’ve seen fewer and fewer engineers — as a share of civil engineering — employed by state governments. We’ve seen state DOTs decline in their employment over time, even as what they’re doing has expanded,” said Zachary Liscow, who was the chief economist at the Office of Management and Budget and is now a professor at Yale Law School.