Accountability of fuel taxes is needed

To the editor:

Raising gas taxes while fuel costs are lower is attractive to the spend-more elected and nonelected Des Moines and Washington D.C. leaders.

The Jan. 15 Wall Street Journal 'Abolish the gas tax” pointed out the significant non-road spending from the Highway Transportation Fund. And an opinion that 10 years of road funding could continue without raising the national fuel taxes, if other non-road spending was stopped.

Is there a Gazette study published or should a study be republished with the facts, showing Iowa's share of funding into and out of the highway transportation fund? Are we a giver or a taker of funds? Provide the details of the national highway transportation fund spending on non-road projects, where perhaps those users should pay for their commuter trains and trails. How much of the highway transportation fund is committed to the California high speed train project, politicized, mismanaged and underfunded today?

What are the comparable numbers for Iowa's fuel tax revenue and spending? We know it's going into trails, while roads are needing work. How many municipal street department budgets are propped up from the highway transportation fund and Iowa's fuel tax revenue?

We need to know how much of our fuel taxes we pay actually make it into the roads we drive.

Bruce Lindholm

Cedar Rapids