When considering the costs of infrastructure people often balk at the number of zeros between the left side of the decimal and the significant digits. Older people, particularly, tend to think in "Boomer Bucks", which had more value than today's money. For this reason, it is better to think about the cost of infrastructure compared to Gross Domestic Product.
Much ink has been splattered over New York City's East Side Access project costing $11 Billion. But the GDP of the New York Metropolitan area is $2.299 Trillion. In that context, the East Side Access project is 0.48% of the areas GDP. If you want to consider it only in the context of New York City, then the GDP is $1.286 Trillion, which makes it 0.855% of The City's GDP.
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA GDP is $243.47 Billion as of 2023.
Hillsborough County GDP is $152 Billion.
The cost of the proposed light rail and bus expansion for Hillsborough County is around $2.5 Billion.
Pinellas County GDP is $78.13 Billion.
We can afford light rail, or at the very least a proper BRT system. We simply lack the political will to make it happen.
Remember that this election season.
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