The cost of maintaining highways outpaces revenue

by Charles N. Wheeler III

Besides making travel move dangerous and less comfortable, bad roads equal higher car repair bills for Illinois drivers.

If you've traveled on Illinois highways lately, odds are it wasn't the smoothest of trips. You probably bounced along over washboard pavement, maneuvered around deep cracks and endured crumbling stretches.

Indeed, a national study recently concluded that urban roadways in Illinois are the second worst in the nation, with almost half in either poor or mediocre condition. Earlier, another report found that almost half the state's roads and a quarter of its bridges are substandard.

Besides making highway travel more dangerous and less comfortable, bad roads equal higher car repair bills for Illinois drivers. One study calculated the average motorist will pay an extra $1,000 in repairs over the life of a car. Another estimated Illinoisans spend $1 billion a year in vehicle operating costs because of cracked and crumbling roads.

State transportation officials aren't willing to concede that highways are quite as bad as the studies suggest, reckoning that less than 20 percent of the highways are in need of immediate repair. That's still some 2,600 miles waiting to make driving miserable for motorists unlucky enough to use them. Even more dismaying, officials expect conditions to get a lot worse in the future, unless more money can be found for road repairs and maintenance. The state transportation department is projecting that by 2002 the backlog of bad roads will climb to some 4,300 miles — roughly one-quarter of the state's road network — and the number of deficient bridges will rise to some 1,200, from the current 850. That dismal forecast considers only the existing road network; there is no money, the department notes, to build new roads or add lanes to existing ones, critical needs in heavily congested suburban areas.

The pending crisis stems from a simple fact: The cost of maintaining highways increases at a faster rate than the revenue sources that pay for the work. With 138,000 miles of public roads and streets and 26,000 bridges — the third largest highway system in the nation — Illinois has a huge network to maintain. And it's costly. The most critical project now on the drawing board, for example, rebuilding a 14-mile stretch of the Stevenson Expressway from the Tri-State Tollway to the Dan Ryan, carries a $567 million price tag.

Dollars to pay for the Stevenson and other road work in Illinois come from four sources: federal aid, motor fuel taxes, license fees and bond sales. None is expected to grow much in coming years:

• Illinois will be lucky to hold its own in federal aid, which funds about 60 percent of the state's highway program. Congress is inclined to cut, rather than increase, transportation outlays. And even if spending were boosted, Illinois wouldn't get much of it. For years, Illinois has done better than most other states in securing federal highway dollars compared to the road taxes residents pay. Now, lawmakers from so-called "donor" states insist on a "fairer" split of road money, which means a smaller slice for Illinois. And the state no longer has clout-heavy congressmen like former House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski and former House Republican Leader Bob Michel to defend its interests.

• Receipts from motor fuel taxes and fees for license plates and driver's licenses grow slowly, averaging less than 3 percent a year since fiscal 1990. Costs, on the other hand, rose about a third again as fast, so that the roughly $1.1 billion earmarked for highway work this year can buy only about 70 percent as much as the like sum in 1990.

• Selling bonds to pump more money into the road program is not an option, officials say, because there are no new revenues to pay them off. In fact, this year some $200 million in road funds will go to help pay off past bond sales.

The money squeeze is reflected in the current road program, down $115 million from fiscal year 1997. Because of the decline, transportation officials say the backlog of bad roads and deficient bridges will grow for the first time since 1983. And the downsizing will continue, they predict; program levels which averaged about $1.2 billion annually from

46 / November 1997 Illinois Issues

The bandwagon for a gas tax hike has few riders. Gov. Jim Edgar supports an increase, but he doubts that lawmakers will act.

fiscal year 1990 to fiscal year 1997 are expected to average only about $970 million a year over the next five years, a 20 percent drop. As a result, each year the backlog of bad roads will increase by 300 to 400 miles while the number of deficient bridges will grow by 70 or so, the department estimates.

Clearly, more money is needed for road repairs if such dire consequences are to be avoided.

Realistically, that means higher gas taxes and/or license fees. Gasoline dealers oppose higher taxes, fearing that any hike will hurt stations along the state's borders. Industry lobbyists also argue that too much of the gas tax take is used for purposes other than building and repairing roads; stop these diversions, they say, and the problem will be solved. But the disputed outlays pay for such road- related expenses as state troopers to patrol highways and secretary of state workers to keep track of driver's licenses and vehicle registrations. Paying those costs out of state general funds instead of road funds would make it even more difficult to increase school spending as almost every lawmaker professes to want.

The bandwagon for a gas tax hike has few riders, however. U.S. Rep. Glenn Poshard, a Democratic candidate for governor, has endorsed a two- cent increase in the 19.3-cent-a-gallon state levy, but his primary foes say it's not needed. House Minority Leader Lee A. Daniels, an Elmhurst Republican, is the only legislative leader on board, but he has been mum on specifics. Gov. Jim Edgar also supports an increase, but doubts lawmakers will act as they gear up for next year's election.

If he's right, Illinois drivers might want to invest in heavy-duty shocks, for the state's roads won't be getting any better any time soon.

Charles N. Wheeler III is director of the Public Affairs Reporting program at the University of Illinois at Springfield.

47 / November 1997 Illinois Issues