As Washington debates infrastructure, states aren't waiting for help

As the federal government has scaled back its investments in transportation and other infrastructure projects over the years, states and localities have quietly picked up the slack.

And while President Trump pledged to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure during the 2016 campaign, voters across America approved $225 billion for a variety of transportation ballot measures in that same election.

Last year, a record 77 transportation measures made it onto ballots in 23 states, according to the Center for Transportation Excellence. Fifty-five of those were approved for a success rate of 71 percent, a figure in line with recent years, but at a greater scale.

In addition to these voter-driven successful ballot measures, which included Los Angeles voters approving a half-cent sales tax hike that will fund $120 billion in rail and bus expansions over the next few decades, state governments are also approving new funding.

Since 2013, 22 states, including red ones such as Wyoming and Georgia, have raised their gas tax, a concept long anathema on the federal level where the gas tax hasn't changed since 1993.