Last week I heard a talk by a genial engineer who's involved with the Interstate 5 bridge crossing project. Buried within his presentation was an interesting snippet about highway "earmarks" -- when a member of Congress adds an allocation for a specific highway project into an appropriations bill. Sometimes (and he gave examples) the member of Congress inserts an allocation for a project that the representative's or senator's home state doesn't want, and the state highway department has to come up with the rest of the cost or explain politely why it isn't going to take the federal highway largesse (called "funding" if it's in my state, and "pork" if it's in yours).
The interesting snippet was that 20 or so years ago, Congress adopted about 10 highway earmarks a year. Now, Congress adopts about 7,000 highway earmarks a year. With most of Congress striving to slip some home-district earmarks into the spending bills, their efforts all likely cancel out, and each state gets about what it would have received if the federal gas tax money had been allocated rationally. From this occurred to me the Laquedem Road Pork Vote Plan, which will save our senators and representatives a whole pile of time and still give them the opportunities to show off their prowess at funding local highway projects.
All federal gas tax money that goes to transportation projects will be allocated to the states and the District of Columbia in strict proportion to their electoral votes (Oregon, for example, would get 7/538 of the federal take), with the actual allocation to each state to be accomplished by a funding bill sponsored by the state's senior representatives. (Spending bills have to originate in the House, which is why the Senators don't get to play.) The state highway departments could spend the money on whatever projects they wish, without congressional interference, as long as they let the local congressman or congresswoman show up at the dedication and claim credit for getting the funding. The highway departments can build what the state needs, our Solons can continue to claim credit, and no one wastes time fighting over who gets how much.