California adds 12 cent gas tax and 20 cent diesel tax

WTP-GC wrote:
Some of the money of the fuel taxes will go to actual road repair efforts...SOME.
Like all other sates, cities, counties, etc. that pass similar ordinances, the moey collected goes in many different directions.

So you have this pot of money for road projects. Now where to spend it...??
(We're going to assume for this example that all work is done by government road crews)
First you have to evaluate what roads need to be fixed, so you hire a consultant (cha-ching).
Then you have to pay the salary of those government workers who manage the consultants.
You have to pay for studies, public notices, permits, etc.
Great, now we know what road(s) we're going to work on, so dispatch the road crews.
But wait, you have to pay the salaries, benefits, and expenses of such crews.
And they can't have an old work truck, only new trucks will suffice.
New tools and logos for the trucks too.
And they have to have new equipment, with state of the art maintanance facilities.
You can't "learn" how to operate such equipment. Instead you have to be "trained" (cha-ching).
Now let's get to work. Send all 12 of the road crew guys out there to do a 6 man job.
They'll start at the shop at 8 AM, make plans, hit the road by 9. Arrive onsite around 9:30, setup some signs, make more plans, take a break for lunch, get started for the first time, then leave at 3 so they can get back to the shop by 4.
Dang, Juan broke his pinky finger. Suck it up, right? Nope, 6 weeks of PTO. (I'll break mine too)
Hold on, now there's a group of environmental protestors. Stop the show.

On and on it goes until almost none of the money goes directly to any actual road repair efforts. And of course, they're not going to fix "your" road. That road, well, it's waaaaayyyyy down the list...if we have any money left over.

You left out things like: "we have the ditch dug, but we cannot work on it until the OSHA inspector approves. Lean on your shovels and rack up some overtime"
"The excavator's air filter clogged, we have another one and Bob can easily change it, but union rules require we call out the mechanic and he can't make it till tomorrow. it's already 9AM nearly 1 hour into the workday, so go home everyone will get their full 8 hours of pay"
"The road work has advanced 200 feet and now construction work is more than the legally allowed distance from the porta-potty, can't work until the septic company comes and relocates it. Take the rest of the week off, with pay"
"Found an old chicken bone while we were digging up the old road. This could be a sacred archaeological site. We need to stop all work and consider rerouting the entire road while the historians and archaeologists take few years researching. Don't worry about your pay, we will get an emergency appropriation and then make additional millions preserving the bone forever"
"Cease and desist all work forever. It rained last night and a mud puddle is now in the way. This makes the entire area a wetland and it is now protected from all development. Jackpot, the reroute of the road adds 20 miles and 500 million to the costs. Who needs the lottery, we have government".