A team of ASU researchers recommends increasing state and local government spending on infrastructure by roughly $11 billion a year to accommodate a projected increase in the state’s population by 2032.

They presented the results of their two-year study on the effect of population growth on state infrastructure to an audience of Arizona professors, economists and policymakers at a forum in the Tempe campus' Memorial Union on Monday.

Infrastructure, as defined by the study, includes water, utilities, roads, education, public safety and healthcare. The researchers’ recommendations are based on projections by the state of an increase in population by 4 million people over the next 25 years.

“Infrastructure is what we do today for our children and grandchildren,” ASU President Michael Crow said in an opening statement. “Are we going to make investments to secure the quality of life for our children and grandchildren?”

Panelists projected a $288 billion gap between the amount of money needed to support the projected population growth the revenue generated by state and local governments under current financing structures.

In other words, the state would have to spend billions of dollars annually to improve and expand services to maintain the current quality of life.

Keynote speaker Norman Mineta, a former secretary of transportation under the Bush administration, applauded the state’s efforts to plan for future population growth.

“In the years to come, you will come to look back on Nov. 17 as the day that Arizona took control of its own destiny,” Mineta said.

Following Mineta’s speech, the members of the research team took center stage. The team was made up of W.P. Carey School of Business faculty members Dennis Hoffman and Timothy James, as well as staff members Tom Rex, Molly Castelazo and Matthew Croucher.

Rex said per capita spending on infrastructure has decreased dramatically over the last 40 years.

“The nation spends more than $400 billion a year on infrastructure, and that’s way down [since the 1960s and 1970s], adjusting for population,” Rex said.

Croucher, whose focus was on transportation, said politicians will have to find means of raising money for transportation projects, even if those means are unpopular.

“We can mention dirty words like, ‘raising taxes,’ and ‘toll roads,’” Croucher said. “Unfortunately they are the way forward because current funding mechanisms aren’t going to be able to finance [road expansions].”

State Sen. Meg Burton Cahill, D-Tempe, agreed with most of the study’s findings, but acknowledged raising the money to fund growth would be a challenge, particularly with the recent economic downturn and a conservative state Legislature.

“We’re going to have to come up with very creative ways to find that money, or we’re going to put the state in jeopardy down the line,” she said.

Mesa Mayor Scott Smith stressed the importance of expanding infrastructure before the state becomes overpopulated and quality of life goes down.

“We have a lot of examples of cities in the Rust Belt and other places,” Smith said. “When they didn’t keep up, they saw an out-migration…I don’t think we want to repeat what has occurred in [those] parts of the country.”

Reach the reporter at derek.quizon@asu.edu.