Title: Highway and Road Expenditures | Urban Institute
Headings: Highway and Road Expenditures
Highway and Road Expenditures
How much do state and local governments spend on highways and roads?
How does state spending differ from local spending and what does the federal government contribute?
How have highway and road expenditures changed over time?
How and why does spending differ across states?
Interactive Data Tools
Further Reading

Content: Exploring the Census of Governments
State Fiscal Briefs
What everyone should know about their state’s budget
Further Reading
Using Dollars with Sense: Ideas for Better Infrastructure Choices
Urban Institute (2018)
Infrastructure, the Gas Tax, and Municipal Bonds
Richard Auxier and John Iselin (2017)
High costs may explain crumbling support for US infrastructure
Tracy Gordon, Urban Wire (2015)
Reforming State Gas Taxes
Richard Auxier (2014)
Assessing Fiscal Capacities of States: A Representative Revenue System–Representative Expenditure System Approach, Fiscal Year 2012
Tracy Gordon, Richard Auxier, and John Iselin (2016)
Notes
1 Data are from Census expenditure functions E44, F44, G44, E45, F45, and G45. 2 Direct general spending refers to all direct spending (or spending excluding transfers to other governments) except spending specially enumerated as utility, liquor store, employee-retirement, or insurance trust. The utility sector includes public transit systems. Unless otherwise noted, all data are from the US Bureau of the Census, Survey of State and Local Government Finance, 1977–2016, accessed via the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center Data Query System, January9, 2019, http://slfdqs.taxpolicycenter.org. The census recognizes five types of local government in addition to state government: counties, municipalities, townships, special districts (e.g., a water and sewer authority), and school districts. All dates in sections about expenditures reference the fiscal year unless explicitly stated otherwise. 3 For an analysis of components of state and local spending using 2012 data, see the Urban Institute’s interactive tool, What everyone should know about their state’s budget.