The third special session has ended with the passage of a bill that will ask voters to approve a constitutional amendment in November 2014 taking part of the oil & gas severance tax revenue that would have gone into the Economic Stabilization Fund and instead sending it to TxDOT. Though this has the potential to raise about $1.2 billion annually for transportation, that amount only covers about 1/4 of the need to maintain current levels of congestion. This was a very conservative effort to provide some sustainable, ongoing revenue for TxDOT but much more could have been done for transportation, education, health care, and more if legislators had had the political will to vote for responsible and adequate funding for vital government services.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 13:01:47 +0000