Deferring or Investing?

One of the primary ways government tries to keep budgets within reason is by deferring maintenance.  My experience with town governments demonstrated to me the futility of that approach.  At least once a year we would learn of the necessity of a fairly large increase in a department's budget due to the need for maintenance which had been deferred in prior years.  On the federal level we are currently deferring maintenance to reduce the deficit.  From an economic standpoint  this makes no sense when the cost of money is close to zero and unemployment, particularly in construction, remains high.  And, of course, deferring maintenance of bridges and roads does not make us safer.