NCGA: Oh, yeah. Here's where the gas tax money goes. | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton expresses how North Carolina may no longer be known as the 'Good Roads State' -not with out a great deal of expense - in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    We've posted previously about our frustration over paying an obscenely high gas tax while being told by Raleigh politicians that there is no money to maintain existing or build new roads.

    Some internal docs at NCDOT are shedding some light on what happens to all of that money we shell out at the pump. For 2013-14, NCDOT got $4.4 BILLION in funding.

    Of that $4.4 BILLION, a mere $2,049,000,000 went to the highway fund, and $1,105,000,000 went to the highway trust fund. From the highway fund, $257 MILLION was peeled away to fund the highway patrol, driver's ed courses, the state treasurer and other state agencies. Another $254 MILLION was diverted from the highway fund to DMV administrative costs.

    WHY is funding for maintaining and building highways going to June Atkinson's Department of Public Instruction to pay for driver's ed courses?

    The highway patrol is under the aegis of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety. WHY is nearly $200 million from a fund meant for road construction paying for an agency that doesn't even fall under the domain of NCDOT?

    WHY is $34 MILLION being taken from a fund meant for road construction to fund the operations angry boyof the state treasurer and "other" agencies?

    The highway trust fund — which also includes gas tax money — includes just as many questions. A mere $46 million goes to "administration. Another $40 million goes to bike paths. Again, this money is meant for road construction and maintenance. WHY is it going to administration and bike paths?

    Irresponsible use of our money by Raleigh bureaucrats and politicians does not constitute an emergency requiring more of my money. Print the linked chart out. Wave it in the face of any politician that tries to tell you we need to (1) borrow more money, (2) raise taxes, or (3) install toll roads to raise money to pay for road construction and maintenance. We've already sent them plenty of money meant for roads that went elsewhere.