[While these reports say nothing about energy or how changing energy realities will change our infrastructure needs, they do have a lot to say about how infrastructure can be funded. Worth a read. The PDFs are linked to on the NAR website. - Ed.]

At a time of severe budget problems at the state and local level, many jurisdictions are finding it increasingly difficult to provide roads, schools, and other infrastructure needed to accommodate a growing population.

As citizens demand a broader range of services from their local governments, and as the costs of maintaining and expanding infrastructure rise, governments are looking for ways to satisfy competing demands. Driven by crisis, many state and local governments now seek alternatives to traditional ways of financing and managing infrastructure.

A series of publications from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) and the National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) offers potential solutions to the infrastructure challenge. The publication seek to better explains alternative mechanisms that governments can use to finance and manage infrastructure, and it offers examples of how these alternatives have been applied successfully by state and local governments.

The alternatives include innovative financing mechanisms such as tax increment financing (TIFs), state bond banks, tax-exempt municipal lease-finance, GARVEE bonds and special purpose corporations. Other approaches, such as design-build strategies, public-private partnerships and small-scale water and wastewater systems, offer new ways to get infrastructure built. Still other innovations — asset sales, privatization, and competitive contracting of operations — focus on the long-term management of infrastructure

Part One of this series on infrastructure tools, Building for Tomorrow: Innovative Infrastructure Solution, is at 32-page report explaining more than 20 infrastructure financing tools and delivery mechanisms, while also presenting presents case studies on how those tools have been applied successfully.

Part Two of the series on infrastructure tools, Infrastructure Finance: Does Your State Encourage Innovation, enables policy makers at all levels of government to see which states authorize the 12 most commonly used infrastructure finance tools. Prepared by researchers at the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), this information can be used by local governments to determine the financing options enabled in their state. It can also be used by states to identify infrastructure tools that warrant new authorizing legislation.

Part Three of the series on infrastructure tools, Infrastructure Solutions: Best Practices From Result Oriented States, features new research from NCSL regarding the best state policies for some of the most commonly used infrastructure finance alternatives. NCSL looked at statutory language from all of the states authorizing the use of these finance tools and highlighted the best-written laws—those that showed the most promise for helping local governments make effective use of those tools.