Gas tax shortfall puts roads, streets at risk - 13 WTHR Indianapolis

Larry Lee knows more about how to build and maintain roads than just about anyone you will meet.

It takes everything in Lee's knowledge arsenal to keep the roads together in Lebanon. He showed us where more than a third of his current budget was used, as we looked south from an intersection.

"This subdivision, less than five-tenths of a mile," said Lee.

The reason his budget is stressed comes down to one thing: the price of gas. We're buying less, so departments like Lee's are getting less to fix our streets.

For every gallon of gas you buy in Indiana, the state collects an 18 cent gasoline tax, plus a 7 cent sales tax. The average driver is spending about $130 a year on gas tax. What that buys is about a six feet section of road.

A small upside to having a smaller budget, says Lee, is that his crews employ uncommon repair techniques, like what was done on a county road we checked.

"We have to go back to preventive maintenance," said Lee. "Almost three miles, $98,000 (for this section of repair). If this was laid asphalt, it was going to be almost $200,000."

Lee says if a solution for road funding is not worked out with in the next couple of years, good roads will be a distant memory. "75 percent of the roads will deteriorate into fair shape, into poor."