George Hornedo Releases Fix the Damn Roads Plan

Monday, March 30​

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Indianapolis, IN — George Hornedo, candidate for Congress in Indiana's 7th District, today released his Fix the Damn Roads initiative, a cross-government strategy to confront Indianapolis's worsening infrastructure crisis.

 

"For too long, residents have been told to accept blown tires, bent rims, and unsafe streets as normal," Hornedo said. "That's not normal. That's government failure and it's exactly the kind of failure a Member of Congress should help fix, not shrug at."

 

The Problem

Indianapolis faces a structural infrastructure emergency. City crews filled more than 100,000 potholes in 2023 alone, yet residents continue absorbing costly vehicle damage and unsafe conditions. An engineering analysis estimates the city needs an additional $600 million per year just to maintain its roads, a gap current funding barely begins to close.

 

Recent state reforms have helped at the margins. But even with a temporary $50 million state match in 2027–2028, Indianapolis remains more than $500 million short annually. Temporary relief isn't a real solution.

 

The deeper problem is structural. Indianapolis is a blue city in a red state and it shows. The state has systematically withheld its fair share of funds from the city, blamed the city for the challenges that underinvestment created, and used that blame as justification to continue the cycle. Federal representation has largely sat on the sidelines while this dynamic plays out. That changes with this plan.

 

The Plan

 

1. Bring More Federal Money Home
   Congressman Carson has touted $1 billion brought to the district over 18 years, most of it formula funding that would have arrived regardless of who held the seat. Indianapolis lags behind peer cities in competitive federal funding and that gap is a direct result of insufficient effort and advocacy at the congressional level.
   
   As congressman, Hornedo will run a proactive federal grant operation—tracking competitive opportunities across transportation, infrastructure, and community development, connecting city agencies and nonprofits to funding they don't know exists, and providing hands-on support through the application process. If Indianapolis gets more competitive dollars, that frees up municipal budget to direct more toward roads. A member of Congress can't force the city to repave any given road, but they can help create the fiscal conditions that make it possible.
    

2. Fix the Federal Formula
   The Surface Transportation Reauthorization Program—the primary source of federal road funding—distributes money to states based on population, not need. Indiana then applies its own formula, which further shortchanges Indianapolis. The result is a city maintaining over 8,400 lane miles of roadway while funded as if it had far fewer.
   
   This isn't just an Indianapolis problem. Cities like Birmingham, Jackson, and Little Rock face the same dynamic—blue cities in red states, systematically underfunded by formulas designed without them in mind. Hornedo will work to build a congressional coalition of members representing similar communities to push for federal formula reform that accounts for urban density, lane-mile burden, and the compounding effects of state-level disinvestment. It's not a headline-grabbing fight. It's a high-leverage one because fixing the formula doesn't just fix roads, but it changes the fiscal reality for cities like Indianapolis across every issue where federal dollars flow.
    

3. Force the Conversation
   A member of Congress doesn't control the mayor's budget or the state legislature's priorities, but they control a platform. Hornedo will use that platform to hold every level of government accountable: pushing the city to prioritize long-neglected corridors, calling out the state when it withholds its fair share, and making Indianapolis's infrastructure gap a visible, named, ongoing political issue rather than something residents are expected to quietly absorb.
   
   "Residents don't care which level of government owns the road," Hornedo said. "They just want it fixed. My job is to use every tool available—federal dollars, formula reform, and the platform of this office—to make that happen."

 

Equity and Accountability

Bad roads hit hardest in neighborhoods that have already been left behind. This plan commits to prioritizing areas with the worst conditions and longest neglect, shifting from endless pothole patching to full resurfacing where needed, and making progress publicly trackable so residents can see when their streets are actually getting fixed.

 

"Fix the damn roads isn't a slogan," Hornedo said. "It's a commitment to prove that government can still do basic things well and that the people of Indianapolis deserve a congressman who will fight for that, not one who watches from the sidelines."

 

The full Fix the Damn Roads memo serves as both a policy blueprint and accountability framework for delivering results in Indianapolis.

 

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