When the Indiana State Highway Commission was recreated in , the subject of funding came up in a hurry. A big part of that was the fact that many people thought that the whole concept of a highway commission was counter to the Indiana Constitution of But the Federal government was passing out money for highway systems throughout the country.
But only if the state had someone to give the money toβ¦as in, a highway commission. So state funding would be important, and a state highway commission to receive matching Federal funds was as important. Wedeking gave an address at Purdue University outlining funding and expansion of the state highway system. He then went into the history of funding of the ISHC. These funds became available for our use in In , the first gasoline tax was implemented by the state legislature. This tax was two cents per gallon.
Keep in mind that gas prices were a lot lower thenβ¦as far as actual price, not adjusted for inflation. Again, this was found to not be enough to support both the ISHC and local governments when it came to road maintenance. The gasoline tax was increased to three cents a gallon.
The gasoline tax went up again in , with the legislature approving a four cent per gallon levy. Of this, the ISHC would receive three cents, with the rest being passed onto local governments. That four cent per gallon tax was still in effect when Mr. Wedeking gave his address in Offsetting this was the Federal Government and its assorted alphabet agencies set up to help people get some sort of work. There were projects all over the state that would be helped through these agencies.
After deducting the expenses of collection, a small appropriation was given to the Department of Public Safety for policing the highways. More legislation taking money away from the ISHC was passed in The Second World War would be detrimental to this funding scheme. The state found itself not doing a good job with the funding that it had.
