One good thing about working in local government is just when you think that you have seen it all…surprise!  The latest “you have to be kidding moment” comes courtesy of the federal government.  They are proposing to make municipal bonds taxable as one of the ways to plug the holes in their budget.  The same municipal bonds that help local government to build critical infrastructure.

What’s especially interesting about this idea is it doesn’t just mean that investors pay more in taxes.  It has the added effect of raising the cost of every local infrastructure project in the United States of America!  That’s the same US of A that has identified so many deficiencies in local infrastructure that most consider it to ba a crisis, is now considering a way to make projects less viable and more costly.  Municipal bonds are currently funding over $3.7 trillion worth of essential infrastructure across the country. Ninety (90) percent of this amount went to improve schools, hospitals, water and sewer facilities, public power utilities, roads and public transit.

I recognize that the federal government has budget issues that are almost beyond definition, but this “solution” takes money away from local projects and throws it into the federal abyss.  Every dollar the feds will take in taxes, is one less dollar we have to maintain our communities. Is this really a step forward?

Mark me down as a no.