The way this works in municipalities or low-population regions of states (which is what most people experience traveling through 95% of the United States' road miles) is that roads are left to deteriorate until such time as they can't avoid fixing, and preferentially might be completely rebuilt which takes a different flavor of money that can be subsidized by the federal govt.
Regions with affluent populations and dense metros essentially have their own road budgets and taxes to keep conditions acceptable.
The other problem in the states is that the weather varies very strongly; this coupled with snowplows and road freight does a number on roads in short order. Some stretches have to be resurfaced yearly. Doing this is expensive and disruptive, so sometimes it is only done in the worst spots if the other parts can wait.
