Cracks in the FedGov behemoth? GOP wants states to control highway money

quote:

---

Conservative groups like Heritage Action and the Club for Growth are leading the charge to gradually devolve transportation funding to individual states, arguing they would be in better position to determine their own projects without being dependent on Washington. They say they have been warning about the looming crisis — or, as they put it, the need for a "bailout" — since 2012, the last time Congress shored up the Highway Trust Fund.

"Giving that money to the states is a really uncontroversial idea," Dan Holler, a spokesman for Heritage Action, told Business Insider in an interview. " Nobody across the country cares if some bureaucrats in Washington and handful of committee members aren’t having a say in how they spend state and local money."

---

quote:

---

The House GOP's bill will keep the trust fund solvent through next May. Conservatives have begun to rally around bills from Rep. Tom Graves (R-Georgia) and Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), which would gradually phase out the federal gas tax and leave it up to states to decide how they want to raise revenue to fund projects.

---

quote:

---

But some opponents of that plan argue some smaller states would be wholly unable to fund all of the burgeoning problems with their highways and infrastructure. Under the federal system, different states get different levels of help. For example, in 2011, New York received less than 15% of its total highway and transit funding from the federal government, according to an analysis from Pew Charitable Trusts. Montana, on the other hand, received almost 60% of its total funding from Washington.

---