| Smart Growth America marked yesterday's 120-day "use it or lose it" deadline for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act by reviewing the stimulus spending on transportation. Overall, the report found that 62.9 percent of funding had gone to highway repairs, and 31.3 percent, or $6.69 billion, was dedicated to building new roads.
"Given our huge road and bridge repair backlog and inadequate public transportation system, $6.6 billion for new highway capacity just doesn't make sense," said the coalition's president, Geoff Anderson, in a statement. "It's like adding a new wing to your house when the roof is falling in."
Here are the winners and losers:
Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and Vermont committed to making their existing networks safer and more effective for their residents. Each of these states put 100% of the stimulus money they chose to spend on roads towards maintenance work.
Nevada, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Oklahoma all spent over 90% of their stimulus road budgets on repair as well.
In contrast, Ohio, Florida, Arkansas, Kansas, and Kentucky were inflexible, out of balance and out of step with what will keep their residents safe and moving into the 21st century. Each of these states committed less than half of their stimulus road budgets on maintenance. Kentucky committed 88% of its road spending to new roads.
With regards to public transportation, the District of Columbia committed 41.5% of its funding toward public transportation and non-motorized projects, including facilities to make walking and biking safer and more convenient. Only 6 other states spent over 10% of their budgets on these types of projects: Delaware, Massachusetts, Oregon, Iowa, Colorado, and Hawaii.
Spending 0.0% towards improving transportation options for their residents? An incredible fourteen states: Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Four more states - Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and Nevada - allocated under 1%.
Connecticut spent 0% on public transportation? Really, 0%? All this talk from politicians about expanding rail throughout the state and they spend exactly 0 dollars on mass transportation. Massachusetts, by comparison, spent over 10% of their budget on mass transportation and non-motorized projects. Zero percent!! Sometimes this stuff just makes my head hurt. |
