Maine could get $2.47B in infrastructure funding — but not a fair share, says economist

FIle Charles Colgan presented Tuesday at the MEREDA Spring Conference.

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By Jessica Hall

The federal infrastructure law passed last November will bring more than $2.47 billion in funds to Maine over the next five years, with the largest portions going to improvement in highways, water resources, bridges, public transportation and broadband.

But Maine’s share of the total funding package is less than its fair share, based on population, according to a presentation by Charles Colgan, former Maine state economist and professor emeritus at the University of Southern Maine.

“The real answer is no one knows what we’ll get. The real, real answer is it’s not enough,” Colgan said at a presentation to the Maine Real Estate & Developers Association’s spring conference on Tuesday.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides $973 billion over five years from 2022 through 2026, including $550 billion in new investments for all modes of transportation, water, power and energy, environmental remediation, public lands, broadband and resilience.

“If you take the president’s statement that this is a once in a generation investment opportunity, then the next time we’ll see this much investment is in the 2040s,” Colgan said. “The bulk of the money in this bill is trying to keep broken systems from being more broken. It’s not progress. It’s insurance against future losses.”

Maine needs to “fix what’s broken because it will only get more broken,” Colgan said.

He also said that the state needs to stretch the money being received by supplementing the federal funds with state and local funding on infrastructure projects.

Putting the funds to work could be hampered by the state's labor shortage, Colgan said. Maine has about 650,300 people employed, 31,600 unemployed and more than 132,000 people of employment age who are not in the workforce, he said.