Roadway funding
Why our streets are wearing out faster than we can fix them
Winthrop Harbor maintains about 37 miles of streets and alleys. The money the state sends us to take care of them has not kept up, and it has not for years. Here is a plain explanation of how road funding works, what changed, and where things stand today.
The gap, in one picture
Annual dollars available for streets, compared with what engineers say the job actually requires.
Put another way: our regular state road money covers roughly 5 cents of every dollar the job needs. A single mile of rebuilt street can cost more than $1 million. Our entire yearly allotment does not rebuild one mile.
How road repairs are supposed to be paid for
This part surprises most people.
Village streets are not paid for out of the same pot as most other services. They are funded largely by the Motor Fuel Tax, the tax built into the price of gasoline and diesel. The state collects it at the pump and sends a share back to every city and village based on population.
That money is walled off by law. In 2016 Illinois voters approved a constitutional amendment, often called the transportation lockbox, that prevents motor fuel tax revenue from being spent on anything other than transportation. So these dollars can only go toward road-related work, and they cannot be moved into general Village operations. That protection cuts both ways. It guarantees the money reaches the roads, but it also means the road program rises and falls entirely on whatever the state sends.
Some of that allotment never reaches pavement at all. Roughly $50,000 a year here goes to road salt for winter operations, which comes out of the same pot before a single street gets resurfaced. Snow and ice control is not optional, so that expense comes off the top every year.
The distribution is also based on population, not on road miles or road condition. A village with aging streets receives the same per person allotment as a village that rebuilt everything five years ago. Nothing in the formula responds to how much work a community actually needs.
So when you hear "why doesn't the Village just fix the roads," the honest answer is that the funding source designed to do exactly that has fallen far behind the work.
Sources: Illinois Department of Transportation, Motor Fuel Tax distribution to local public agencies, and the Illinois Office of the Comptroller, which describes the Motor Fuel Tax Fund, the Municipalities Fund, and the 2016 constitutional amendment restricting motor fuel tax revenue to transportation purposes. Road salt and local allotment figures from Village of Winthrop Harbor records.
What changed
Three things happened at the same time, and they compound each other.
Construction costs climbed
Asphalt, materials, and labor all cost far more than they did a decade ago. Public projects also carry prevailing wage rates, and Lake County's are among the highest in the state. The same street costs dramatically more to fix today than it did when it was last resurfaced.
The gas tax is tied to gallons
The Motor Fuel Tax is charged per gallon, not per dollar spent. Vehicles have grown more fuel efficient, so drivers buy fewer gallons while driving the same miles. Fewer gallons means less road money, even when traffic never lets up.
Electric vehicles pay nothing into it
An electric vehicle buys no fuel, so it contributes nothing to the fund that maintains the roads it drives on. Illinois charges EV owners $100 a year instead, but that money goes to the state's own Road Fund. None of it comes back to Winthrop Harbor.
Illinois has set a goal of one million electric vehicles on its roads by 2030. Lawmakers have been discussing how to adapt road funding to that future, including a charge based on miles driven, and that work is ongoing. It is a shared challenge that the state and its communities are working through together.
Sources: Motor fuel tax structure per the Illinois Department of Transportation and the Illinois Office of the Comptroller. Electric vehicle registration surcharge per 625 ILCS 5/3-805 and the Illinois Secretary of State. Prevailing wage requirements apply to public works projects under the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act. Fuel efficiency and revenue trends documented by the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
This is bigger than Winthrop Harbor
Every community in Illinois is facing the same math.
It would be easy to assume our streets are in this condition because of decisions made here. The reality is that the funding model itself is under strain statewide, and it is a challenge that no single village can solve on its own. Communities and the state are working through it together.
Start with how lopsided the arrangement is. Local governments in Illinois, meaning cities, villages, counties, and townships, are responsible for the overwhelming majority of the state's road mileage and carry a large share of its traffic. They do not receive anything close to a proportional share of the money drivers pay into the system.
Source: Illinois Association of County Engineers, "Funding vs. Costs of Maintaining Local Roads," published in Peoria Magazine, using State of Illinois highway user fee data. In the year studied, the shortfall between what local road traffic generated and what came back to local roads was $596.2 million.
That imbalance is why so many Illinois communities look like ours. A statewide assessment by TRIP, a national transportation research nonprofit, found that more than two out of five of Illinois' major roads were in poor or mediocre condition, and estimated that driving on deteriorated, congested, and unsafe roads costs Illinois motorists roughly $18.3 billion a year in extra vehicle repairs, wasted fuel, and crash and delay costs. Rough roads are not free. Residents pay for them either way, through taxes or through their own repair bills.
Closer to home, the same research examined the Round Lake Beach, McHenry, and Grayslake urban area here in Lake County and found 44 percent of major roads rated in poor condition, placing our corner of Illinois among the harder hit regions in the country. Winthrop Harbor's situation is not unusual. It is typical.
Source: TRIP, "Illinois Transportation by the Numbers: Meeting the State's Need for Safe, Smooth and Efficient Mobility," May 2019, using Federal Highway Administration pavement data. Regional figures reported by Patch. These remain the most recent comprehensive statewide assessments of their kind.
Nor is the pressure easing at the state level. Illinois has been named among the many states projecting that keeping their roads and bridges properly maintained will be a challenge over the coming decade, and in recent budget years the state has at times directed hundreds of millions of dollars, including motor fuel tax revenue, toward other pressing obligations. These are difficult balancing decisions, and they are part of why a durable, long term solution is needed rather than a one year fix.
Sources: Pew Charitable Trusts research on state transportation asset management, as reported by Smart Cities Dive, which identified Illinois among 29 states projecting a maintenance gap. Budget figures from The Civic Federation's analysis of the State of Illinois FY2026 enacted budget, which documented $171 million in motor fuel sales tax revenue retained in the General Fund rather than transferred to the Road Fund.
Illinois does adjust the motor fuel tax rate for inflation each July, which helps. But raising the rate per gallon cannot make up for a shrinking number of gallons sold, and the state can suspend even that adjustment, which it did for six months in 2026. Meanwhile the state has set a goal of one million electric vehicles on Illinois roads by 2030.
Sources: Illinois Department of Revenue Bulletin FY 2026-23-A, describing the six month suspension of the scheduled motor fuel tax rate adjustment under Public Act 104-0468. Electric vehicle goal established under the Climate and Equitable Jobs Act, per the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity.
The electric vehicle piece deserves a closer look, because the way Illinois structured it matters to us. EV owners pay a $100 annual registration surcharge in place of fuel taxes, which was a reasonable first step as the state adapts to a changing vehicle fleet. That surcharge goes into the state's own Road Fund, and it is not distributed to municipalities the way motor fuel tax revenue is. So when a Winthrop Harbor resident trades a gasoline vehicle for an electric one, the Village's share of that household's road contribution is not yet replaced at the local level. It is one of the details a long term solution will need to address.
Encouragingly, this is a problem the state is actively working on. Researchers, planning agencies, and legislators have been studying it for years, and state lawmakers have discussed replacing the gas tax with a road usage charge based on miles driven, an approach that could restore a local share. That work is still in progress, and in the meantime local governments continue to manage the gap. It is exactly the kind of challenge that gets solved through steady partnership between communities and the state.
Sources: Electric vehicle registration surcharge and its deposit into the State Road Fund per 625 ILCS 5/3-805, Illinois Secretary of State, and the U.S. Department of Energy Alternative Fuels Data Center. Road usage charge proposals and revenue projections from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning, the Illinois Economic Policy Institute as reported by Capitol News Illinois, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.
Why waiting costs more
Pavement does not fail in a straight line. It falls off a cliff.
A street spends most of its life declining slowly. During that stretch, relatively inexpensive treatments such as crack sealing, surface treatments, and patching can hold it in serviceable shape and add years to its life. This is the cheapest road work there is, and it is invisible to most people because nothing dramatic is happening.
Once pavement passes a certain point, water gets into the base underneath. Freeze and thaw cycles do the rest, and the deterioration accelerates sharply. At that stage surface repairs no longer help, because the problem is no longer the surface. The street needs to be rebuilt from the base up, and the price moves from tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands, or more, per mile.
The Federal Highway Administration puts it plainly for local governments: reacting to poor conditions by patching potholes is far less cost effective than treating streets while they are still in decent shape. That is the trap underfunding creates. When there is not enough money to keep good streets good, more of them slide into the expensive category every year, and the backlog grows faster than the budget ever could.
It is the same reason our backlog estimate climbed from $5.5 million in 2006 to nearly $16 million today. Some of that is inflation in construction costs. The rest is the compounding price of work that could not be done on time.
Source: Federal Highway Administration, "Asphalt Pavement Preservation" guidance for local public agencies, and the FHWA Pavement Preservation program, which describe the cost effectiveness of treating pavements before failure and note that agencies generally expect asphalt pavements to last at least 20 years when properly maintained.
How we decide which streets get fixed
Not by who calls the most.
In 2024 the Village had its engineers survey and rate every street we maintain. Each segment received a Pavement Condition Index score, an industry standard rating on a scale of 0 to 100. A newly paved street starts near 100 and declines as it ages, cracks, and takes on traffic and weather. The scores group streets into categories from good down to failed.
That data does two things. It tells the Village which streets are closest to the cliff described above, where a modest investment still buys years of life, and it identifies the streets already past saving that will need full reconstruction whenever funding allows. Public Works then weighs those ratings alongside traffic volumes, safety, drainage problems, and whether underground utilities need attention at the same time.
The result is a prioritized plan rather than a reaction to whichever complaint arrived most recently. It also means that when a rough street is passed over, it is usually because the dollars available that year went further somewhere else, not because the condition went unnoticed.
Source: Village of Winthrop Harbor 2024 Pavement Management Report Update (Baxter & Woodman, Consulting Engineers) and the Public Works Department's Street Rehabilitation: 3 Year Strategic Plan Options 2024 to 2026. Both documents are linked in the resources below. The Pavement Condition Index is an industry standard rating method used by engineers nationwide.
What a mile of street actually costs
The sticker shock is real, and there are reasons for it.
People are often surprised by road prices, because the intuition is that paving is just asphalt. On a public street it never is. Here is roughly what the work runs today for a standard two lane residential street.
Grinding off the worn top layer and laying a new asphalt surface. This is the asphalt work by itself, before anything else a public project requires.
What it actually costs once everything else is included: prevailing wage labor, ADA compliant curb ramps that federal law requires whenever a street is resurfaced, curb and drainage repair, pavement markings, traffic control, engineering, and material testing.
When the base underneath has failed, resurfacing accomplishes nothing. The street has to come out and be rebuilt from the ground up. This is where a street ends up when it goes too long without maintenance.
Two things drive these numbers. The first is that public projects carry prevailing wage requirements, and Lake County's rates are among the highest in the state. The second is that a street is not just its surface. It includes curbs, gutters, drainage structures, sidewalks and ramps, and often water and sewer mains buried underneath, all of which have their own lifespans and their own costs.
Set those figures against what the state sends us. Our regular yearly Motor Fuel Tax allotment of $150,000 to $160,000 does not cover one complete mile of resurfacing, let alone reconstruction. With 37 miles to maintain, the arithmetic does not work, and it has not worked for a long time.
Note on these figures: the per mile costs above are current market planning estimates for municipal roadway work in the Lake County and Chicago metropolitan area under Illinois prevailing wage requirements. They are budgeting ranges rather than bid prices, and actual project costs vary with street width, existing condition, drainage and utility work, and market conditions at the time of bidding. Village mileage and Motor Fuel Tax allotment figures come from Village of Winthrop Harbor records.
Using state road money is not simple
Motor Fuel Tax dollars come with a thorough set of standards, and there is good reason for them.
There is a common assumption that fixing a street means sending a crew out to grind off the old surface and lay down new asphalt. On a Motor Fuel Tax funded project, there is more to it. Because these are state administered funds, the work is guided by the Illinois Department of Transportation through its Bureau of Local Roads and Streets, and the Village follows IDOT procedure from authorization through final inspection. These standards are what ensure the work is done right and the money is well spent.
In practical terms, that means the following.
Funds must be formally appropriated before anything begins
IDOT will not authorize Motor Fuel Tax funds until an approved MFT resolution is submitted. Maintenance work is appropriated through documents such as Form BLR 14222, the Estimate of Maintenance Cost and Maintenance Expenditure Statement, or Form BLR 09150, the Request for Expenditure and Authorization of Motor Fuel Tax Funds. Projects are assigned formal section numbers and tracked by IDOT.
The work must be built to IDOT specifications, not local preference
Materials, methods, and workmanship must conform to the IDOT Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction, together with the Supplemental Specifications, Recurring Special Provisions, and any contract special provisions. These documents dictate the details, down to how a surface course is placed and compacted. The Village does not get to do it a different way because another method would be quicker or cheaper.
Design must meet established engineering criteria
The Bureau of Local Roads and Streets Manual sets Level One and Level Two design criteria governing elements of the roadway design. Where a project cannot meet those criteria, the Village cannot simply proceed. It must document and justify a formal design exception on Form BLR 22120 and submit it to the IDOT district before plans are submitted. Plans are prepared by or under an Illinois licensed professional engineer.
Every material must be inspected and tested
Under the BLRS Manual, all materials incorporated into a project financed in whole or in part with Motor Fuel Tax funds must be inspected and tested for compliance with the Standard Specifications and the Project Procedures Guide before they go into the work. That means certified material sources, bills of lading verified against IDOT's current certified source list at delivery, and a resident engineer accepting material on site. Testing and inspection are project costs.
Contracts go through formal competitive bidding
MFT construction work is publicly advertised and let through IDOT's bidding process, with proposal guaranties, contractor prequalification where required, and filings such as the Affidavit of Availability, Form BC 57, from the low bidders. As a public works project it also carries Illinois prevailing wage requirements. All of that adds time to the schedule and cost to the bid.
IDOT provides oversight, which communities can take on themselves when qualified
Under the Illinois Highway Code, a municipality may enter an Agreement of Understanding with IDOT to construct or maintain streets with MFT funds without IDOT approval and supervision, but only if it demonstrates that it is adequately organized, staffed, equipped, and financed, including having an appointed full time engineer. Communities that do not meet that threshold work under IDOT approval and supervision throughout.
These requirements are worth having. They exist so that public money buys pavement that actually lasts, so that streets are built safely and consistently across the state, and so that every dollar can be accounted for. They are also why a street project is never just grinding and paving.
Every one of these requirements carries a cost. Design engineering, plan preparation, permitting and documentation, materials testing, construction inspection, and project administration are all real line items, and on a Motor Fuel Tax project they are not optional. They are paid out of the same allotment as the asphalt.
That is the part residents rarely see. When the Village receives $150,000 to $160,000 a year, that figure is not $150,000 worth of pavement. A meaningful share is consumed by the engineering and oversight the state requires before a single truck arrives, and prevailing wage requirements raise the labor cost of the construction itself. What is left over is what actually gets laid down on the street.
The result is straightforward arithmetic. Higher cost per project, applied to a fixed and shrinking pot of money, means fewer streets repaired each year. Not because the Village is choosing to do less, but because each project consumes more of the available funding than it did a decade ago. The backlog grows on both ends at once: the cost of doing the work keeps climbing, while the number of projects that fit inside the budget keeps falling.
Sources: Illinois Department of Transportation, Bureau of Local Roads and Streets Manual, including Chapter 5 (Agreements), Chapter 13 (Construction, covering materials inspection and testing), Chapter 14 (Maintenance, covering MFT resolutions and eligible maintenance operations), and Chapter 27 (Basic Design Controls, covering Level One and Level Two design criteria and Form BLR 22120). Authority for Agreements of Understanding appears at 605 ILCS 5/5-402 and 605 ILCS 5/7-203.2 of the Illinois Highway Code. Construction requirements reference the IDOT Standard Specifications for Road and Bridge Construction and the Project Procedures Guide. Prevailing wage requirements arise under the Illinois Prevailing Wage Act.
Where Village money comes from
And why the General Fund cannot absorb the difference indefinitely.
When road money runs short, the Village has been covering the gap out of its General Fund. Understanding what that fund is explains why this cannot continue forever.
The General Fund is the Village's main operating account. It is filled from four main sources: the Village's share of the state income tax, the Village's share of sales tax collected here, the Village's portion of local property taxes, and the various fees and charges the Village collects.
Most residents assume their property tax bill funds Village services. In fact the Village receives only about 11 cents of every property tax dollar. The rest goes to schools, the county, and other taxing bodies. The Village's slice of that bill is far smaller than most people expect.
The General Fund pays for day to day operations: police protection, administration, parks, and general services. It was never designed to carry a road construction program, and every dollar moved from it to streets is a dollar that is no longer available for those services.
The Village has been transferring $70,000 to $100,000 a year out of that fund for street patching and maintenance, and the amount has grown steadily. Even so, the combined total remains far below the $2.5 to $3 million a year the engineering study identifies as necessary. The General Fund is not big enough to close a gap this size, and stretching it further would come at the cost of the services it exists to provide.
Source: Village of Winthrop Harbor budget and Department of Public Works records, and the Village's 2024 Pavement Management Report Update. Property tax distribution reflects the Village's share of a typical local property tax bill; the remainder is levied by school districts, Lake County, and other taxing bodies. Residents can see the exact breakdown for their own property on their Lake County tax bill.
Winthrop Harbor by the numbers
From the Village's 2024 pavement study, which rated every street we maintain.
That backlog figure has grown from $5.5 million in 2006 to $15.7 million in 2019 to $15.9 million today. Roads are unforgiving that way. A street kept up on schedule can serve for 15 to 20 years, but once maintenance slips, the pavement fails much faster and the fix changes from a modest resurfacing into a full rebuild at several times the cost.
Source: Village of Winthrop Harbor 2024 Pavement Management Report Update, prepared by Baxter & Woodman, Consulting Engineers, February 2024, and Village of Winthrop Harbor Department of Public Works records. The full report is linked in the resources below.
What the Village has already done
This is not a case of waiting around for a new revenue source.
Steps already taken
- Spent more than $3.4 million on street improvements since 2006
- Transferred $70,000 to $100,000 a year out of the General Fund to keep up with patching and maintenance
- Purchased a hot box patching trailer in 2024 for about $40,000, so crews can make lasting hot asphalt repairs instead of temporary cold patch that pops out in weeks
- Commissioned a full engineering study rating every street, so repairs are prioritized by condition and safety rather than by who calls to complain
- Pursued grants and outside funding wherever they are available
Why it is not enough
- The General Fund is the same limited pot that pays for police, administration, parks, and daily operations
- It was never designed to carry the road program, and every dollar moved to streets is a dollar not available for those services
- The amount being shifted has grown steadily, which is not sustainable
- Even with the transfers, the total falls far short of the $2.5 to $3 million a year the engineering study calls for
- Meanwhile the backlog and the cost of the work both keep rising
Source: Village of Winthrop Harbor Department of Public Works records and Village budget documents. The comparison between hot mix and cold patch repairs reflects findings in "Innovative Pothole Repair Materials and Techniques," published by the U.S. Department of Transportation National Transportation Library, which found that hot mix asphalt provides the higher quality and longer lasting repair, while cold mix remains workable under a wider range of weather conditions.
Questions we hear
Fair questions, answered directly.
Working with the state on solutions
There is real momentum, and the Village intends to be ready for it.
The encouraging news is that this challenge is getting attention where it counts. The state has taken a meaningful step for the coming year, and the Village is working actively to make sure Winthrop Harbor is positioned to benefit.
A step forward for local roads
Set aside for local road needs in State Fiscal Year 2027
Illinois has appropriated $300 million in Public Act 104-0464 toward local road needs for State Fiscal Year 2027. The Illinois Department of Transportation has not yet released program guidance, so eligibility and application requirements are still being determined. The Illinois Municipal League has formally requested those details from IDOT on behalf of communities across the state.
The Village is not waiting on the sidelines. We are working with our state legislative delegation and the Illinois Municipal League to position Winthrop Harbor for a share of these funds, and we are preparing a prioritized list of street improvement needs so that we are ready to move the moment the state opens the process. The engineering work already done, including our 2024 pavement study, means that prioritized list is largely in hand.
This is the kind of multilevel approach the problem calls for. Near term, opportunities like this can help address immediate roadway needs. Longer term, the state continues to work on how Illinois funds local roads in a future of more efficient and electric vehicles. Progress on both fronts, state and local, is how a lasting solution comes together.
Source: Illinois Municipal League Statehouse Briefing, July 13, 2026, reporting the July 2, 2026 letter from IML Chief Executive Officer Brad Cole to the Illinois Department of Transportation requesting implementation details for the $300 million Road Fund appropriation in Public Act 104-0464 for State Fiscal Year 2027. Program eligibility, distribution, application and reporting requirements, and funding timeline were, as of that date, still to be determined by IDOT.
Where things stand
The problem is documented. The funding to solve it is not yet in place.
None of this is a surprise to the Village. The condition of every street has been measured, the cost of the backlog has been calculated, and a phased plan for tackling it already exists. What is missing is a way to pay for it.
The Motor Fuel Tax was designed to carry this work, and it no longer does. Shifting more money out of the General Fund each year has kept us patching, but it takes dollars away from police, administration, parks, and the other services that fund pays for, and it still leaves us far short of what the engineering study calls for.
The Village is actively evaluating funding alternatives so that street work has a stable, dependable source of its own rather than competing every year with daily operations. As those options are developed, they will be discussed in open Village Board meetings, and residents and business owners will have the information and the opportunity to weigh in before any decision is made.
How to stay involved
Report a problem
Potholes, failing pavement, standing water, and drainage issues can be reported to Village Hall. Reports help Public Works track conditions between formal surveys.
Ask about your street
Contact the Village if you want to know your street's condition rating and where it sits in the priority list. The information is public and we are glad to walk through it.
Come to a meeting
Village Board meetings are open and include time for public comment. This is where the funding discussion will happen, and where resident input carries the most weight.
Dig deeper
Everything on this page comes from public documents and reporting. If you want to check our work or read further, start here.
The Village's own studies
- Winthrop Harbor Pavement Management Report 2024Baxter & Woodman, Consulting Engineers · February 2024The full engineering study behind the numbers on this page. Every Village street was surveyed and scored, and the report lays out the condition of the network, the cost of the backlog, and the level of annual investment needed to keep up.
- Street Rehabilitation: 3 Year Strategic Plan Options 2024–2026Winthrop Harbor Department of Public Works · April 2024The Public Works plan that turns the engineering data into an action plan, showing what different levels of funding would actually accomplish on the ground over three years.
How road funding works in Illinois
- Motor Fuel Tax distribution to local agenciesIllinois Department of TransportationHow the state collects motor fuel tax and distributes it to cities, villages, counties, and townships, including the per capita formula that determines what Winthrop Harbor receives.
- Motor fuel tax revenue explainedIllinois Office of the ComptrollerA plain overview of where motor fuel tax money goes, including the 2016 constitutional amendment that locked these funds to transportation use only.
- Illinois Sources of Transportation FundingIllinois Department of TransportationA detailed background memorandum on how Illinois pays for roads, including projections showing how far revenue could fall as the vehicle fleet electrifies.
- Bureau of Local Roads and Streets Manual, Chapter 14: MaintenanceIllinois Department of TransportationThe rules governing how Motor Fuel Tax funds may be appropriated and spent on maintenance, including the resolution and form requirements and which operations qualify. Other chapters of the same manual cover construction, materials testing, design criteria, and agreements between municipalities and IDOT.
- Bureau of Local Roads and Streets Manual, Chapter 13: ConstructionIllinois Department of TransportationThe materials inspection and testing requirements that apply to any project financed in whole or in part with Motor Fuel Tax funds, including certified sources, delivery verification, and resident engineer acceptance.
Why the funding is shrinking
- Report predicts billions in motor fuel tax revenue losses if state meets EV goalsCapitol News IllinoisCoverage of research warning that transportation revenue will drop sharply as electric vehicles replace gasoline vehicles, and that new revenue sources will have to be found.
- Illinois considering road mileage tax as gas tax revenue dropsCBS News ChicagoA news segment on the shrinking gas tax and the proposal to charge drivers by the mile instead, including why transportation experts consider the change inevitable.
- Illinois eyes taxing drivers by the mile rather than by the gallon of gasIllinois Public MediaHow fuel efficiency and electric vehicles have cut into the tax that pays for roads and bridges, and what lawmakers have proposed doing about it.
- Advancing a road usage charge in IllinoisChicago Metropolitan Agency for PlanningThe regional planning agency's analysis of why the motor fuel tax is increasingly unsustainable as vehicles get more efficient, and how a per mile charge could work instead.
- Electric Vehicles, Motor Fuel Taxes, and Road FundingFederal Reserve Bank of ChicagoEconomic research on how electrification affects road funding across Illinois and neighboring states, and a review of the alternatives being considered nationally.
Illinois communities are all facing this
- Statehouse Briefing: Road Fund Appropriation, July 13, 2026Illinois Municipal LeagueThe Municipal League's briefing on the $300 million local road appropriation in Public Act 104-0464 for State Fiscal Year 2027, and its request to IDOT for the program eligibility and distribution details that municipalities, including Winthrop Harbor, will need to apply.
- Funding vs. Costs of Maintaining Local RoadsPeoria Magazine · Illinois Association of County EngineersThe clearest explanation of the imbalance facing every local government in Illinois. Local agencies maintain 89 percent of the state's road mileage and carry 40 percent of its traffic, but receive back only about a fifth of the highway user fees that traffic generates.
- Illinois Transportation by the NumbersTRIP, a national transportation research nonprofitThe statewide assessment finding that more than two-fifths of Illinois' major roads are in poor or mediocre condition, and that rough and congested roads cost Illinois drivers $18.3 billion a year in repairs, fuel, crashes, and delay.
- See How Many of Illinois' Urban Roads Are in Bad ShapePatchRegional breakdown of the same research, including the finding that 44 percent of major roads in the Round Lake Beach, McHenry, and Grayslake area of Lake County are rated in poor condition.
- Can cities and states keep their roads in good shape?Smart Cities Dive, reporting on Pew Charitable Trusts researchNational context showing Illinois among 29 states that project a gap in their ability to keep roads and bridges properly maintained over the next decade.
- The State of Illinois FY2026 Enacted BudgetThe Civic FederationNonpartisan budget analysis documenting how the state delayed a scheduled transfer of motor fuel sales tax revenue to the Road Fund, keeping $171 million in the General Fund instead.
Taking care of pavement
- Asphalt Pavement Preservation for Local AgenciesFederal Highway AdministrationWritten for towns and villages like ours. Explains why treating streets before they fail costs far less than rebuilding them afterward, and why patching potholes is the least cost effective approach.
- Pavement Preservation programFederal Highway AdministrationThe federal overview of pavement preservation, including how well timed treatments extend the service life of a road at a fraction of reconstruction cost.