California has both the highest gasoline taxes and “most decrepit” roads? How can this be?

Photo above - Vin Diesel ponders whether street racing contributes to road deterioration, in the upcoming sequel: "Fast and Furious 14 - Mendocino Pothole"

I’m very old school. I cling to the quaint belief that highway tolls and gas taxes should be used for road construction and maintenance. Not to build 200 mph bullet trains to gambling mecca Las Vegas. Not boost California’s average state employee salary to $180,000 a year. Evidently the legislature and governor don’t agree. Road taxes and fees are now spent on practically anything BUT roads. California's roads are now "the worst in the nation". Will the new EV/Zero emission $121 annual fee be used for road repairs? If anyone believes this, they might be too dumb to vote.

California's policies are a study in cognitive dissonance. Residents can still get $2,000 cash back for installing a home EV charger, despite the electricity shortage. And with the “Clean Cars For All” program a driver can score up to $13,000 in cash-back. And it doesn’t even have to be a pure EV! The rules are way too complicated to list here.

So I’m skeptical that a yearly EV fee is going to stay affordable, repair any roads, or even pay for the gazillions of green rebates/giveaways which politicians use to get reelected to office year after year.

I haven’t been to California in more than decade. But Last time I was, the roads didn’t seem that bad. Not as bad as Pennsylvania where I grew up. Frost heave. Plow and salt damage, Lots of rural PA roads are just a 3 inch veneer of asphalt on a couple of inches of drainage gravel. California’s highways used to impress me as more competently engineered. Ten lane wall of China-sized monstrosities that can be seen from outer space. Too wide for wild animals to cross unless you build them a $120 million pedestrian bridge.

Hey – maybe THAT’S why so many California roads are falling apart. The money is being spent to spare coyotes, cougars, and racoons from becoming roadkill?

I’m just sayin’ . . .

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/decrepit-state-of-california-s-highways-revealed-in-report-ranking-them-worst-in-us/ar-AA1Zy1zw?ocid=msedgntp&pc=HCTS&cvid=69c7bc34c69b4c0e9cb2dc3e6b1a0332&ei=207

Decrepit state of California’s highways revealed in report ranking them worst in US

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Registration Fees - California DMV

DavidT8899 · 22-25, M

Well,why do you think so many people - particularly the wealthy - are running out of the state A.S.A.P? High taxes with nothing to show for it .

SusanInFlorida · 31-35, F

@DavidT8899 politicians would say something like: "your payoff is soaring real estate values if you already own a home. don't get pissy because there are homeless encompments, crime and drugs"

dancingtongue · 80-89, M

I remember as a kid, growing up in California, we would listen to the sitcoms on the radio (who had TV?) with the jokes about potholes and wonder what it was all about. County roads were well maintained; freeways were brand new.

A major factor in the change, imo, was the passage of Proposition 13 that severely constricted property taxes (and with it local sense of responsibility for anything) with no realistic alternative to funding infrastructure, from roads to schools. The dream was you starved the beast, and all the corruption and fat disappeared. In reality, a lot of local control (and sense of responsibility) was kicked up to the state level, preventive maintenance was gutted on everything as if it weren't needed, and state funds were diverted to band-aid fixes at the local.