With federal funds for road repairs being sliced from state budgets, transportation and government officials are being forced to get creative in order to keep infrastructure viable and safe. Some states, like Pennsylvania, are angling to raise taxes on oil companies doing business there, as well as to increase a variety of license, registration and vehicle fees to raise the $1 billion to help repair the state’s 5,646 structurally deficient bridges and nearly 7,000 miles of highway in “poor” condition. Other states, like Arizona, are lobbying to open up rest areas to commercial businesses to help underwrite operating expenses. To accomplish that, state officials must amend a 1956 federal law banning the commercialization of public highway rest stops. Forced to close rest areas, a growing number of other states are joining with Arizona in hopes of generating much needed funding.

State governments are trying new tactics to generate funds needed to operate, repair, and expand their roadway networks – efforts exacerbated by recent cutbacks in federal highway monies.

Pennsylvania’s state legislature, for example, is wrestling plans to generate $1 billion in extra monies through increased taxes and fees to help it reach a $3.5 billion a year funding level required to keep highways, bridges and transit in a state of good repair, according to research compiled by Pennsylvania’s Dept. of Transportation (PennDOT).

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