# SUbsidy for Roads



## jis (May 12, 2011)

According a report from SubsidyScope User Fees and Gas Tax cover only 51% of the net cost of raods. So the level of subsidy is 49% of the total cost. It is a good read and lot of good source information and statistics. You can even get a state by state breakdown, and some of the numbers are revealing, nay eye-popping!

You can find the report which has further references to the sources, at: http://subsidyscope.org/transportation/highways/funding/state/


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## Anderson (May 25, 2011)

The decline doesn't shock me...spending on roads isn't getting cut, but:

A) Average MPG numbers do seem to be on the way up;

B) Miles driven took a big hit; and

C) A lot of shippers switched to rail/intermodal shipping from highway shipping.

Of course, I think there's a bit of fuzzy math going on:

1) Most studies that we kick around refer strictly to the interstate highway system, while this covers _all_ roads.

2) Bonds are sort of a "no-man's land": If they're basically borrowing against user fee-type revenues (tolls, for example, are often set up to pay off a bond issue), then I'd put them in with user fees. If they're against "general fund" revenues, then they go with non-user fees.

3) I'm not sure how non-gas tax vehicle taxes are counted. For example, Virginia has a "car tax"...but in a wonderful case of sleight of hand, 80% of that was cut back in the 1990s...so technically, I believe that the state is "paying" 4/5 of the car tax out of the general fund (they were going to eliminate it, but then the economy went off the rails in 2001...while the state government spent the intervening years of the boom letting spending get out of hand, so the rest of that plan went out the window).


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## Shanghai (Jun 28, 2011)

The Federal Transportation Budget for "Planning Year 2010" allocated 60% of the $73.2 billion budget to the

Fedearl Highway Authority, 16% to the Federal Aviation Authority and 2% to Amtrak. Since Nancy Pelosi's

House did not prepare a budget for fiscal 2010, the only figures available were the Planning Budget.

The remaining 22% of the budget went to Administrative Overheads.


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## jis (Jun 28, 2011)

Shanghai said:


> The Federal Transportation Budget for "Planning Year 2010" allocated 60% of the $73.2 billion budget to the
> 
> Fedearl Highway Authority, 16% to the Federal Aviation Authority and 2% to Amtrak. Since Nancy Pelosi's
> 
> ...


You really hate the Dems don't you?  Did the Repubs play a role in the budgeting issue in the House too perhaps, or is that too inconvenient to remember and does not fit ones world view?


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## Shanghai (Jul 2, 2011)

*Jis, I don't hate anyone. I believe what I said was factual.*


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## Ryan (Jul 2, 2011)

Sorry, but it isn't. The FY2010 budget was passed by Congress in July of 2009.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/29/politics/main4977653.shtml


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## Shanghai (Jul 2, 2011)

*Ryan, you are correct. I was referring to the FiscalYear 2011 budget which was passed by Congress on April 14, 2011.*


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