Day in the Life of an Idiot

I don't understand what "the entire tax base of the city, all of the private wealth sustained by that infrastructure" refers to, and this example does not consider regional infrastructure improvements that do not rely on city taxes, and why the author suggests that (for example) sewer replacement is a once-in-a-generation activity. My city has a Metropolitan Council to plan and fund regional improvements, and these do not rely on city taxes. My city also completed a major sewer reconstruction on a 100-year-old line.

Louisiana is one of the poorer states, so that's part of the author's perspective but one might expect him to know of more salient and effective models of local governance.

K.