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Old 02-13-2013, 12:38 PM   #18
samagon
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Originally Posted by WRXHillClimb View Post
Not sure, but in Fort Collins CO they do it based on a bunch of things, one metric being current value of your car. I paid 150/year for my s2000 to register it.

Even then, let's take in to account the $50 a year statement. With people owning multiple cars and some owning none, I'm just gonna make math easy and say I'll estimate the funding from that is $50 * the population of the state.

NM has 2 million people, so that puts the fund at ~100 million. How much do you think road maint costs yearly?

I'll give you some real world examples of stretches of interstate. NM posts signs saying how much each stretch is taking to repair (why I have no idea).

There's a good 3 mile stretch of premium 6 lane interstate in norther NM that shows an 8 million dollar price tag. It will need to be replaced maybe once every 5-10 years? I'd say the budget seems to be doing fine considering interstate is often the most expensive kind of road (meaning they don't often use cheap aggregate asphalt or thin layers like parking lots or low pop roads).
so NM only has 3 miles of interstate? no wonder registration covers the cost easily.

in actuality (I know, wikipedia can't be trusted), according to this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_State_Roads_in_New_Mexico
there's just under 7.5 million miles of road in NM. the number you referenced of cost for the 3 mile stretch is pretty average (most numbers reference an average cost to build a road at 1.3 million per mile).

go ahead and use that to do your maths at a replacement rate of 5 years and 10 years. in fact, we'll go on your number of 10 years. 7.5 million x 1.3 million over 10 years is still 975 billion every year. realistically, they'll be replaced a lot less frequently than that. even if you calculate for every 20 years, that's still 430 billion every year. the 200 million collected in vehicle registration is pretty small beans in the overall costs. and that doesn't even factor in regular maintenance, patching roads, inspections, etc.

at least you're state isn't in the north, where road salts and studded tires can chew through roads at a very rapid pace.
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