States seek reform in distribution of highway funding

STATES NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON -- Every time they go to the gasoline pump, Ohio residents help Alaska keep its highways in top condition.
For the last five years, Ohio has received 89 cents in federal highway funding for every dollar it sent to Washington in gasoline taxes. At the same time, Alaska received $6.60 for every dollar it paid into the system, the most of any state.
That imbalance is the result of complex federal spending formulas that deliver sparsely populated states like Montana and North Dakota millions of dollars in highway improvements paid for by Ohio and more than a dozen other states.
It's a system that costs so-called donor states like Ohio millions of dollars in additional highway funding each year. As Congress begins to craft the massive plan that will serve as the nation's transportation blueprint for the next six years, a group of lawmakers is looking to narrow the gap between donor and recipient states.
Senate plan
"Built in the 1950s to serve the demands and traffic of the 1980s, Ohio's infrastructure is straining to keep up," said Sen. George Voinovich, the Ohio Republican who is one of the effort's lead Senate sponsors. "Tapping these new funds will help relieve these problems."
A plan backed by Voinovich and 17 other senators who represent donor states would increase the minimum amount each state would receive from the federal government to 95 cents for every dollar its citizens pay in gas taxes.
The current minimum is 90.5 cents for every dollar, but the transportation program 's administrative costs push the actual return to a handful of states, including Ohio, below that level. Texas and Florida fare worst under the program, each receiving 86 cents for every dollar in gas taxes.
Voinovich said Ohio would have seen an additional $56 million in federal highway dollars if the higher guaranteed minimum had been in place in 2002. .
There are 25 states that receive more funding than they pay in gas-tax dollars, and 24 states that pay more than they receive. One state, Maine, receives almost exactly one dollar in highway funding for every gas-tax dollar.