Should the Feds Get Out of the Highway Business?
The federal government has been heavily involved in highway construction for decades. Since 1956, the Highway Trust Fund has been used to collect federal transportation tax revenues and finance transportation projects around the country. Tax revenues are redistributed to states as grants, awarded based on federally determined program allocations and funding levels. However, this program structure has created funding disparities for some states and skewed incentives for all of them. Consequently, the idea of devolving the federal highway system to states gets aired every so often.