All the federal taxes are collected and then divided up by what projects will benefit the whole nation the most, or at least thats the way its supposed to work. But earmarks and such sometimes make it unfair. There are state that are donor states and some that are not, depends on the populations, anyway…
So you like grapes...grape juice...wine....
http://www.ers.usda.gov/Briefing/FruitA ... grapes.pdf
99% of all grapes in the US are grown in California. They are not shipped by planes or on ships through panama. They are shipped on interstates or on trains crossing through states. If you have one state that can not afford to keep its interstates up and running so truckers can ship the grapes the price of grapes and grape related projects go throw the roof. And many western states receive much funding from eastern states, not because the states are poor, but because the tax base is small. However, many of the western states do provide much of the resources the east needs, such as food and oil and gas. California is a donor state but many many western states are not including Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Idaho, Montana, Washington, Organ are not. Sure these states have large cities but that is where the whole population is located and the tax base is not big enough. So either the donor states pony up some tax dollars that go out of state, or become self sufficient. Take for example New York City…lots and lots of tax dollars, but where in New York City is wheat grown, or corn, or oranges, or beef, or pork, or bananas, and where are the oil fields in New York City? NYC citizens do pay tax dollars on roads they never use, but they do benefit from them.
Same can be said for oranges, and many other foodstuffs.
So your tax dollars are spent in other states, but if they were not then consumers would pay a lot more for simple items, or the products would not be available.
Taxes go into the till, and get spent to fix roads throughout the US.
The Alaska bridge was a huge black eye, or the greatest political joke in history, maybe both.
Basically look around your house and see what items aren't native to your state, they are getting shipped in on the interstates. And if corporations had to pay for the roads it would bankrupt them, even Walmart can’t pony up that much money, they do however donate money when they build a new store on an interstate, lots of money (its still not enough though).