California has both the highest gasoline taxes and “most decrepit” roads? How can this be?

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Photo above - Vin Diesel ponders whether street racing contributes to road deterioration, in the upcoming sequel: "Fast and Furious 14 - Mendocino Pothole"

I’m very old school. I cling to the quaint belief that highway tolls and gas taxes should be used for road construction and maintenance. Not to build 200 mph bullet trains to gambling mecca Las Vegas. Not boost California’s average state employee salary to $180,000 a year. Evidently the legislature and governor don’t agree. Road taxes and fees are now spent on practically anything BUT roads. California's roads are now "the worst in the nation". Will the new EV/Zero emission $121 annual fee be used for road repairs? If anyone believes this, they might be too dumb to vote.

California's policies are a study in cognitive dissonance. Residents can still get $2,000 cash back for installing a home EV charger, despite the electricity shortage. And with the “Clean Cars For All” program a driver can score up to $13,000 in cash-back. And it doesn’t even have to be a pure EV! The rules are way too complicated to list here.

So I’m skeptical that a yearly EV fee is going to stay affordable, repair any roads, or even pay for the gazillions of green rebates/giveaways which politicians use to get reelected to office year after year.

I haven’t been to California in more than decade. But Last time I was, the roads didn’t seem that bad. Not as bad as Pennsylvania where I grew up. Frost heave. Plow and salt damage, Lots of rural PA roads are just a 3 inch veneer of asphalt on a couple of inches of drainage gravel. California’s highways used to impress me as more competently engineered. Ten lane wall of China-sized monstrosities that can be seen from outer space. Too wide for wild animals to cross unless you build them a $120 million pedestrian bridge.

Hey – maybe THAT’S why so many California roads are falling apart. The money is being spent to spare coyotes, cougars, and racoons from becoming roadkill?