Capital spending by state and local governments around the U.S. has been on the decline, with jurisdictions pushing off infrastructure costs into future years.

That’s according to a report the credit ratings agency Moody’s Investors Service issued last week. The ratings agency looks at U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis figures and says the information suggests an “ongoing buildup of deferred infrastructure maintenance.”

This comes as costs tied to areas like public employee pensions and education continue to put pressure on many state and local budgets.

If states and localities had maintained 2009 capital investment levels, they would have invested an additional amount of roughly $685 billion in the past seven years, or about 27 percent more than the $2.5 trillion spent during that time, according to Moody’s.

Keep reading this article at: http://www.routefifty.com/finance/2017/10/capital-investment-state-local-infrastructure-moodys/141628/