[Phantom Lord]

If you look at the cost of building and maintaining interstate highways over a long period of time, you'll find that the road users themselves only pay about 30%-35% of the cost.

If the billions upon billions of taxes collected on gasoline, registration fees, inspection fees and other items that were originally instituted to pay for roads were actually dedicated to the building of and maintaining of roads and not lumped into the general fund and spent on every budget item the taxes collected would more than pay for the roads.

The problem isnt that we arent paying enough in taxes to build and maintain roads, the problem is the taxes levied to pay for these items are NOT spent on roads.

I do not know the answer to this question, maybe you or someone else could find the answer or already know it. How much in taxes has been collected over the past 20 years from gasoline taxes, registration and inspection fees, toll booths, and other taxes that were instituted to pay for roads? And then lets compare that with the amount spent on "roads" and see what number is bigger.

I am safely betting that the taxes collected exceed expenses, and at worst are approaching 100%. Not the 30% to 35% that you are claiming.

[Alberta's Child]

You have to remember that gasoline taxes are generally used for major capital expenses, not roadway maintenance. The cost of building a road, therefore, is covered by the users, but the cost of plowing it or resurfacing it are not. Many states lump their registration fees and gas tax revenue in their general funds because these maintenance costs are paid out of those general funds.