Routine maintenance spending for public infrastructure is critical for reducing life-cycle costs, and improving asset preservation and quality. Yet, states focus more on building new roads and expansion than maintaining existing assets’ conditions. Deferred maintenance costs are transferred to the future taxpayers, and they will eventually pay the expensive price. So far, there is little academic endeavor to examine the determinants of state and local routine maintenance spending. This study uses a panel data analysis covering 47 states from 1995 to 2009 to examine the effects of politics on state highway routine maintenance spending. The study finds that political incentive and conflict are key factors delaying state highway routine maintenance spending. The re-election-minded governors and legislatures tend to allocate less funding to maintenance to satisfy the current taxpayers. The study further finds that politically-divided states spend less on highway maintenance due to higher transaction costs in the policy-making process.

公共基础设施的日常维护支出对于降低生命周期成本、提高资产保护和质量至关重要。然而，各州更注重建设新道路和扩建，而不是维持现有资产的状况。递延维修费用转移到未来纳税人身上，他们最终会付出昂贵的代价。到目前为止，几乎没有学术努力研究州和地方日常维护支出的决定因素。本研究使用涵盖 1995 年至 2009 年 47 个州的面板数据分析来检验政治对州际公路日常维护支出的影响。研究发现，政治激励和冲突是推迟州际公路日常维护支出的关键因素。具有连任意识的州长和立法机构倾向于分配较少的资金用于维护，以满足当前的纳税人。该研究进一步发现，由于政策制定过程中的交易成本较高，政治分裂的国家在公路维护上的支出较少。