Smaller Towns Now Eligible for Funding to Fix Overcrowded Highways
This article was written with the assistance of ai* software
Lower Population Limits
SB25 is a prefiled bill that wants to change the rules for a fund that helps improve roads in rural areas.
It creates a fund called the Rural Economic Transportation Reliability and Optimization Fund. (RETRO fund)
This fund will be used to help the Oklahoma Department of Transportation take care of highways in rural areas where more traffic is causing problems because of economic growth.
Right now, the law says that this fund can be used for areas with populations over 75,000 people, but the bill lowers this number to 50,000. This means smaller rural areas can now get help for their roads too.
The bill also says that the state will give $200 million from its main budget to this fund to be used by the end of June 2026.
If passed, the bill will go into effect on July 1, 2025.
Who will benefit from this law?
✔️Rural communities: Smaller towns and rural areas with populations between 50,000 and 75,000 will now have access to funding for road improvements.