I've often heard arguments like this for infrastructure spending, but I've also often heard that point 2 doesn't ever happen. You get a short term boost in jobs

I've often heard arguments like this for infrastructure spending, but I've also often heard that point 2 doesn't ever happen. You get a short term boost in jobs while the project is underway, but you don't get enough economic boost out of new roads and such to actually raise the tax base appreciably. It's basically just city maintenance work and businesses don't reward it as much as people think. Mind you, businesses will move out if you don't do it, but you won't see 2X tax revenue or whatever from that new waste plant, regardless of how it got sold to the locals.