WHY AZ STREETS, ROADS ARE SO BAD

posted by Michael Chihak

Transportation maintenance operations at all levels of government in Arizona has been severely curtailed in the last decade because the Legislature has used the dedicated transportation fund to plug budget deficits.

The state House Transportation Committee estimated during the recently ended legislative session that money swept from the Highway User Revenue Fund, known as HURF, has added up to $1.5 billion in the last 10 years.

Efforts to protect the funds from being swept again this year fell short, and an estimated $182 million was taken away to help operate the Department of Public Safety and the Motor Vehicle Division.

The fund is made up of revenues from the state's 18-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax, a business-use fuel tax and registration and licensing for vehicles.

When the gasoline tax was originally introduced in Arizona in 1921, it was 1 cent a gallon, and the split was 75 percent for counties and 25 percent for the state.

The latest formula has 50.5 percent going to the state highway fund, 27.5 percent to cities and towns, 3 percent to cities over 300,000 in population and 19 percent to counties.

Friday's Arizona Week will bring the big picture of what the funding shifts have wrought. We will talk with representatives of local governments, the League of Arizona Cities and Towns and lawmakers.