ON SHAKY GROUND: Urgent infrastructure needs are straining public resources.

• Author: Reed, Jim

It's no secret that America's infrastructure needs help.

The 2017 Infrastructure Report Card, the latest iteration of the American Society of Civil Engineers' oft-cited national assessment, gives America a D-plus for the condition of our system of basic public works.

The report covers 16 categories including roads and bridges, transit, drinking water, solid waste and energy. That grade is the same one we got in 2013 (the assessment is done every four years), and in fact, since the report card started in 1998, we've never done better than a D overall.

The big question, as always, is how to pay for needed upgrades. The report estimates that $2 trillion is necessary over 10 years to close the gap between infrastructure needs and available funding.

The need for additional infrastructure funding is a long-running policy conversation at all levels of government. Yet, recent analyses show a slightly declining level of spending by federal, state and local governments since 2007, in inflation-adjusted dollars.

Modern, well-maintained infrastructure that efficiently transports people, goods and services forms the basis of smoothly running economies. Newer infrastructure eliminates public safety hazards, increases business productivity and job creation, and improves overall quality of life.

Those hopeful for a more significant federal role in infrastructure investment have been encouraged by a variety of proposals offered at the federal level in the last couple years to increase spending beyond base levels, but none has been enacted. In the meantime, states have continued to assess and fund their infrastructure needs through a variety of mechanisms.

States and localities pay for most of the capital improvements made to the nation's infrastructure. According to the Congressional Budget Office, state and local governments...