Interstate highway conditions
After traveling from North Idaho to Florida towing our trailer---I have to say the Interstate highway system is horrible! Dwight Eisenhower would be ashamed of the way our states and federal governmen...
Forum Discussion
spoon059 wrote:dodge guy wrote:
The real problem is that the money from fuel tax, tolls, vehicle licensing etc, all of it doesn’t go to road repairs. A good amount of it goes to other places it was never meant to go. So our roads and highways suffer because of misappropriation.
And an additional problem is the people that want to believe that one president is responsible for this. They don't seem to understand that CONGRESS, the bi-partisan body, is responsible for funding. Then when funding is approved, it is distributed to the STATES to be spent how they see fit.
Blaming a single administration is just foolish. Our politicians on both sides of the aisle have been mis-appropriating money from infrastructure and Social Security to fund pet projects of their own for my entire life.
This is mostly spot on. Save for the part about the FHWA funding going to the states to use as they wish. There is "some" flexibility in "which" transportation projects get the funding, although that is largely decided before the check is cut as well.
But there is not an avenue, that I'm aware of, for states to misappropriate FHWA funds, as the funds are linked directly to specific projects. If anything, aside from the financial assistance, FHWA funding also ensures project time lines, because the funds are predicated on a time clock with which to use them for each specific endeavor, which pushes the states to otherwise prioritize those projects, lest they lose the funding.
