Handbook of Urban Infrastructure Finance, Southern California

Agency: I-5 Consortium Cities Joint Powers Authority (JPA): Norwalk, La Mirada, Commerce, Downey, Santa Fe Springs

Morgner’s Role: Urban Infrastructure Finance Fellow with New Cities Foundation; Project Director

Project Description:

The development of a comprehensive handbook on urban infrastructure finance to help guide cities and local government around the world as they face rapid urbanization and rapid provisions of basic urban infrastructure.

Project Director, Dr. Kim Julie Kim led a study sponsored by NewCities (funded by Citi and Cisco) to develop a comprehensive handbook on urban infrastructure finance. The main thrust of the handbook was the global urbanization trend and how cities and local governments around the world need to cope with providing basic infrastructure services in the face of rapid growth. The study focused on the basic underlying infrastructure financing concepts, so that the myriad financing vehicles available today are understood in proper context. Because urban infrastructure financing today is largely dependent on subsidies, taxes and other sources that are not sustainable in the long run, the study focused less on transfers and subsidy-like funding and more on financing instruments that help local governments become more self-reliant in the long run.