You said — “Your premise is flawed. They are collecting plenty of money from gas taxes to fix the roads. The problem is that the money isn’t being spent on fixing roads. It is redirected to “other uses”. The unmaintained roads become an excuse to raise the taxes. That still won’t help if the money is stolen for “other purposes”. The problem is crooked politicians. Fix that first. You might actually get the roads fixed if they quit stealing the tax money.”
Well, I’ll speak to that issue for Oregon and for Oklahoma, since I’ve got experience with those two. I’ve already stated that I’m fairly sure that Oregon have specified, by law, that gas tax funds have to be spent on roads, and some associated items, too — and cannot be put into the general budget. Those items that it can be spent for (on gas taxes) must be in the area *as specified* in the law. Now, you can go and check on that and tell me different, if they’ve changed it. But, that’s the last I remember.
For Oklahoma, I also pay extra taxes for driving on certain roads, via the electronic box that they have which charges you by mile (approximately). I know that those funds that I pay for those roads go specifically and only for that road system and nothing else (nothing else, along with the administrative costs, too for operating it).
For the entire state budget, in Oklahoma for gas taxes and roads, I’m not entirely sure. But, I would be willing to bet that it also has to be spent on roads and most likely is not getting enough money to spend on all the repairs that the roads need. At least I can see that some roads need more repair (not to say anything about an Interstate bridge that went down a few years back... LOL...).