As Tom Fahey reports in the August 22 edition of the NH Union Leader, the NH Government is taking the cash it seizes from us in gas taxes, and spending it on agencies that have nothing to do with the roads.

Not unexpected.

Here is a portion of the piece:

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Highway funding: Robbing Peter to pay Paul?

By TOM FAHEY
State House Bureau Chief
Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2007

CONCORD – As the state struggles to find money to fix bridges and highways, the equivalent of nearly two of each three cents in state gasoline taxes is diverted from road construction.

The state's budget sends highway fund money to eight state agencies where workers never touch a shovel, welding torch or bucket of asphalt. Of the total $128 million in gasoline taxes raised in 2007, $79 million, or 62 percent, was used for non-construction purposes, a Legislative Budget Assistant's Office report shows. A total of $107 million was transferred out of Department of Transportation hands in 2007; $28 million of that went to the betterment of local roads.

The Department of Safety, which received $70 million or 30 percent of all highway funds last year, gets the bulk of the transferred funds, mostly to cover costs of highway patrols by state police. But Health and Human Services, state courts, the Attorney General's Office, the Department of Environmental Services and the Office of Information Technology also share in the transfers.

The LBA report on 10 years of highway fund uses was discussed at a legislative hearing yesterday, part of a multi-pronged look at transportation construction plans and funding.
Road construction
Total transfers away from road construction and maintenance in fiscal 2007 worked out to 62 cents of every dollar raised by gasoline taxes.

The state highway fund is fed primarily by two sources: the gasoline tax, at 18 cents a gallon, and motor vehicle registrations. The state Constitution requires the money to be used for highway construction, maintenance and "the supervision of traffic thereon." For decades, state budget writers have used highway funds to cover other highway-related costs.

But the pace picked up over the past 10 years. Total transfers of highway funds went from 33 percent in 1999 to 46 percent in 2007. Five years ago, the total transfers away from road construction and maintenance was 42 cents of every dollar raised by gas taxes. That compares to 62 cents in fiscal 2007.

For more, hit this link:

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Highway+funding%3a+Robb...