President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan proposes investments that range from road and bridge repairs to affordable housing construction and expanded childcare.
Mark Nootbaar / WESA
For Pennsylvania and other states, money from landmark infrastructure law won’t come free
Almost all the grants will have a matching requirement.
By Chloe Nouvelle/WLVR
Mark Nootbaar / WESA
President Joe Biden's American Jobs Plan proposes investments that range from road and bridge repairs to affordable housing construction and expanded childcare.
The Biden White House calls the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act “a once-in-a-generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure and competitiveness.”
The legislation, which was signed into law last year, puts the U.S. on track to spend over $1 trillion on things like roads, bridges and broadband.
But to access the money, states like Pennsylvania will likely need to financially contribute to projects as well.
John Kincaid, the Robert B. and Helen S. Meyner Professor of Government and Public Service at Lafayette College, explained that almost all federal grants have a “matching requirement” for states.
“For infrastructure grants, the match is usually around 20%,” Kincaid said. “So, for every dollar spent on a federally aided infrastructure project, usually the federal government will provide 80 cents and the state or local government needs to provide 20 cents.”
Kincaid said one of the reasons behind the match requirement is to ensure state and local governments have “buy-in” to grant programs.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
