States Halting Road Projects Due To Budget Troubles

The New York Times reports that states are halting road projects due to budget troubles.

California, which has suspended nearly $4 billion in public works projects, is one of a half dozen states delaying or halting projects because of capsizing budgets, an inability to attract investors to the municipal bonds used to bankroll many projects and a reduction in gasoline tax revenues — which underlie a lot of transportation financing.

The American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials has identified 5,000 transportation projects nationwide that lack the dollars to proceed; many of them, like the $730 million project here to add 10 miles of high-occupancy-vehicle lanes to the 405 Freeway — Mr. Schwarzenegger’s backdrop on Monday — have been stopped midstream.

“They just haven’t been able to find the resources,” Tony Dorsey, the spokesman for the association, said of the halted projects.

More than 40 states are struggling with revenue shortfalls, and lawmakers across the country are cutting, taxing and pleading their way toward solvency. Fixing bridges, expanding highways and other infrastructure projects have faced the same fate as government entitlement programs, state jobs and other items.

Jeffrey Caldwell, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation, said, “Projects not currently under construction or significantly far in the development process were either delayed or completely removed from plans for future construction.”

Wait a moment. Weren't all these politicians claiming that they'd be spending all kinds of money to rebuild, rehabilitate and construct new road and infrastructure projects to stimulate the economy? President-Elect Obama and his fellow Democrats have been floating the idea of a massive stimulus package that would spend billions on road and infrastructure projects.

So, why exactly are all these states cutting back on road projects due to the budget troubles?

Seems that reality has a way of adjusting budget forecasts. The states realize they simply can't afford to do those road projects at the same time as funding the out of control entitlements that hamstring state and federal budgets because of a failure to fully fund pensions over the years and a failure to rein in spending year after year.