Report assesses success of transportation stimulus in states - Phoenix Business Journal:

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billion in transportation funding providedf by the American Reinvestment andRecovery Act. Accordintg to its research, repair of highways and bridgeds actually creates more jobs more quickly thannew construction. While many states committed to spending a majoritgy of their stimulus moneyon repairs, five did not: Florida, Arkansas, Kansas and Kentucky. Those statee allocated a majority of theire money to expanding roads and Thereport entitled, “States and the Stimulus,” was most critical of the fact that very littlse of the transportation funding in any state has been allocatecd to public transportation.
“Public transportation ridershi is at all time highs and driving is down,” said Smart Growth American President Geofgf Anderson. “The ARRA provided golde n opportunities for states and metropolitan planning organizations tomake game-changinvg plays and invest in transportation options ... unfortunately most of them arestriking out.” Arizona, for instance, plans to spend about 5.2 percent of its $522 million in ARRA money on public transportation or non-motorizeds projects. That puts Arizona in line with the majorithof states. States that are spending more of their allocations on publix transportation include the Districtof Columbia, 41.5 Delaware, 27.
9 percent; Massachusetts, 19 Oregon, 16.7 percent; Iowa, 16.5 Colorado, 11.3 percent; Hawaii, 10.9 percent; Georgia, 9.3 Rhode Island, 7.5 percent; and Maryland, 6.1 percent. When it comesd to allocating highwayand road-specific money, Arizona is spending more on repairs than new capacity, according to the report. Arizona plans to spend 57 percent of its highwayy money to preserve existing roads and bridgesz and 43 percent on newhighway infrastructure. That comparea with 11 states that are allocating all of theirf highway money to repairsand preservation: Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Maine, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakotaq and Vermont.
States with moneyh weighted to new highways rather than repaier workare Kentucky, which plans to spends 88 percent of its highway money on new followed by Kansas, 86 percent; Arkansas, 85 Florida, 77 percent; and Ohio, 52 percent. For www.smartgrowthamerica.org.