As federal officials hail a coming infrastructure decade, tens of thousands of mostly smaller, rural communities may miss out because they lack capacity to compete for the funds.
That's according to data from Headwaters Economics, a nonprofit research firm focused on community development and land management that developed a rural capacity index to analyze which and how many communities may have a hard time snagging infrastructure funding.
“It’s hard to advocate for resources, it’s hard to navigate complicated grant applications and meet compliance requirements, all of that is very difficult for smaller communities, so it’s logical that the communities that are winning the awards tend to be higher capacity, affluent, urban areas,” said Patty Hernandez, co-founder and executive director of Headwaters.
Large sections of the country have communities that need investments in staffing, resources and expertise to adequately compete, the firm found. Communities that traditionally receive the most external funding, whether from state, federal or philanthropic sources, tend to have larger staff, more expertise and “deeper political influence, not necessarily greater merit,” Headwaters said in its
The issue is freshly important as the White House begins to implement the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Around $100 billion of the money will be doled out as competitive grants. That means, in many cases, local governments and states will compete to win a piece of the federal dollars.
Federal officials have said a top priority is ensuring that smaller communities see their fair share, and groups, like the National League of Cities and National Association of Counties, are also focused on the issue. White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu has
When the IIJA was enacted last year, many smaller municipalities
Headwaters'
That's followed by the Gulf Coast, with 59% of its communities having limited capacity. Capacity is next lowest in the West and Southeast, and is highest in the Northeast, followed by the Pacific Coast and Great Lakes, the firm found.
The 10 states with the most limited capacity are North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Montana, Arkansas, Kansas, West Virginia, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
“I was surprised by how widespread the problem is, and seeing that there’s tens of thousands of communities that face capacity barriers and will struggle to access federal grant dollars made it clear to me that we need to be thinking seriously about solutions and acting now to build capacity,” Hernandez said. “This is an issue in a large part of our country.”
Solutions include bringing in technical support, which federal agencies and nonprofits are starting to talk about, as well as reducing local match requirements for federal funds that may prove too costly for smaller communities, Hernandez said.
So far, federal officials are making an effort to reach out, she said.
“What I see are great first steps and that we have a long way to go,” she said. “I think that there is momentum and I’m hoping that we see meaningful action this year.”
