Andrew Cook/The Daily
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Oklahoma must find a solution for its crumbling infrastructure. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, the oldest national engineering society in the U.S., 40 percent of Oklahoma’s roads are in “poor or mediocre” condition and 32 percent of bridges are “structurally deficient or functionally obsolete.”
Even more pressing is Oklahoma’s $230 million deficit in state-highway maintenance funds. In a time of economic uncertainty and increased competition for funding, Oklahoma needs a revamped infrastructure to attract interstate business and investment. Unfortunately, Oklahoma may need to look south of the Red River to find a solution.
Crossing into Texas on Interstate 35, the superiority of its infrastructure is immediately recognizable. Unlike Oklahoma’s patchwork roads, Texas highways are smooth and level. They fund this in a number of ways, but the two largest are taxation and toll ways.
Oklahomans pay 16 cents per gallon tax on gasoline and 13 cents per gallon on diesel, where Texans pays 20 cents per gallon on both. Texas also appropriates 1 percent of gross fuel sales to its state transportation fund to cover administrative costs. Although this seems like a small discrepancy, when levied on the millions of gallons of fuel sold annually in the state, Oklahoma would see a sharp increase in revenue.
Another route is to create more toll roads in congested areas like Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Rather than rely on federal and state funding for maintenance, Oklahomans could choose to pay extra to save commuting time... FULL ARTICLE
Posted on
Thu, September 2, 2010
by Crystal Drwenski