At some point, those land improvements - the malls, the shopping centers or housing complexes empty out and stop paying taxes. Alternatively, increases in maintenance do not match increase in taxes. Perhaps that has never happened yet in most of the growing west/southwest/midwest. When that happens you will hit a death spiral like Detroit.
Yes, the same thing will pop up again and again until it starts to look like a solved problem; in the case of maintenance problems, reasonably funded systems are what is needed to resolve the issue so that it can reach a steady state over the long term.
It may not be novel to you, but that's just it: this novelty seeking behaviour comes at a cost to all the basic things that don't get the attention they should.
I'm also trying to see if there's anything shady here. Is Haliburton lobbying for a big infrastructure repair contract or something?
Something can be intuitive and seemingly sound and have the real world practical effect of only lining someone's pockets without actually delivering the promised improvements. I think, within reason, it's a good thing to not implicitly trust your own reasoning, and I also think it's good to get an understanding of the motives of whoever is trying to persuade you to their way of thinking.
