Opinion: New Bedford roads are terrible – where does our excise tax go?

The following was posted in our New Bedford group:

“The majority of drivers in New Bedford all seem to agree that the roadways in the city are in a terrible state of disrepair. Those of us that own cars pay an excise tax of $25 per thousand dollars of the cars value every year on our cars as does anyone in every city or town in Massachusetts. That tax is meant to be used to repair the roads in the cities and towns from which the taxes are collected.

Tonight I drove through the back roads of Dartmouth and Westport and 90 percent of the roads I drove on have been paved recently! Same is true for Fairhaven. Many roads are repaved and Alden Road is being repaved and I can remember when they did it the last time. Both towns repave some of their roads every single year – why can’t we? What I don’t understand is why is New Bedford not putting our excise tax dollars back onto our roads? Just about every major road in New Bedford needs repaving and the majority of side streets need it as well. These horrible looking and patched up roads do nothing to make the city beautiful and attractive to tourists and business.” – Pauline St.Don