My finance view

President Barack Obama proposed spending $50 billion on infrastructure projects nationwide in an effort to spur job creation during a Labor Day speech at a union event in Milwaukee.

The six-year program would include rebuilding 150,000 miles of roads, 150 miles of airport runways and either building or refurbishing 4,000 miles of railroad, Obama said. The infrastructure plan would not increase the national deficit, he said.

"This will not only create jobs immediately," Obama said, "it’s also going to make our economy hum over the long haul."

The infrastructure plan also includes changing the federal system for allocating money to projects. The new "infrastructure bank" would make projects compete for federal money according to a system that would judge construction projects based upon the benefits each provides. The bank would replace earmarks or grants awarded to states and local governments according to a formula based upon geographic areas.

In Colorado, infrastructure contractors have been among the biggest fans of the federal economic-stimulus program, Cathy Proctor reports in the Denver Business Journal's Sept. 3-9 edition. Many local transportation-industry figures say that federal dollars funneled to the state Department of Transportation to build and maintain roads and bridges have helped to keep their companies afloat through the recession. (Subscribers can access Proctor's report here.)

Even so, the federal Recovery Act has been blasted by many Colorado Republicans in their fall election campaigns as wasteful and largely ineffective while boosting the federal deficit.

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