Forces over which West Virginia has little control are battering the state's road paving and construction program. The amount of money flowing into the state Road Fund from gasoline taxes and vehicle registration fees is failing to keep pace with the soaring cost of construction materials.
The trend is nothing new, and there's no end in sight. It is estimated that each dollar from the road fund pays for only 75 percent as much construction and maintenance as it did in 2002.
One factor is constant: The West Virginia Division of Highways is responsible for maintaining the sixth largest road and highway network in the nation.
No easy solution will emerge to the funding squeeze. In fact, West Virginians might just as soon go without one if it involves mammoth tax increases.
In the meantime, cognizant that every little bit helps, the Legislature has shifted responsibility for a couple of programs from the Road Fund to other agencies. Millions of dollars from the Road Fund have been siphoned off to operate the Courtesy Patrol and the Public Service Commission's truck weight inspection fleet. Both are worthwhile undertakings, but neither has even the vaguest connection to road construction, which is the purpose of the Road Fund.
Now, thanks to a new law backed by the Manchin administration, the Division of Tourism will assume responsibility for the Courtesy Patrol and the PSC will pay for its own inspectors. The change makes sense. Courtesy Patrol drivers and PSC inspectors should never have drawn checks from the Road Fund in the first place. Moving them onto other payrolls will make more money available for road construction and maintenance.
In West Virginia, that job is never done.