“public transportation projects”
No, according to the law, gas taxes are suppose to go to the roads and only the roads.
The politicians are constantly stealing gas taxes for anything but the roads. Those potholes and bumper-to-bumper traffic jams are the price you pay for having "light rail" that is lightly used by a tiny segment of the population that can use it effectively. Everyone else pays big taxes on gas and sits in traffic. Now you get to pay for crappy teachers too. The socialist toilet is sucking up lots of cash.
Remember when the lottery was introduced as a way to bring more funding to the schools? The politicians took the lottery money for the schools and immediately cut an equal amount from school funding from the general fund. That gave them money to do other social engineering. Arnie just announced a "plan" to float another bond for schools to be repaid with FUTURE lottery revenues. What a bunch of clowns.