There is a debate underway in the San Antonio area and surrounding counties about how to relieve traffic congestion. Recently, anti-toll road activist Terri Hall criticized me and Senator Donna Campbell for our support for legislation that would add funds to build new road capacity locally. This is another example of Terri turning her criticism on fellow conservatives and causing discord rather than working to solve problems. But that is a separate issue. The primary issue is this: The gasoline tax is the main source of funding for roads in Texas. It was last adjusted for inflation in 1987, thus over the past 26 years, the purchasing power of this user-based tax has declined. As fuel economy has increased, people also pay less tax per mile driven. Remember, the gasoline tax is a per gallon tax, not a percentage tax like the sales tax. In 2001, Texas lawmakers decided to issue debt and build toll roads rather than adjust the gasoline tax for inflation. So Texas now has the distinction of having more transportation debt than any other state. And many of the recent toll roads that have been built are very expensive to drive on, are more expensive to build than non-tolled roads, and require huge taxpayer subsidies rather than being a private-sector means of building roads. An increasing number of these toll roads are going bankrupt because of the inflated traffic projections that induced the State to add subsidies to what they were told was a viable project. At the consumer level, we are now suffering under more traffic congestion, more poorly performing and expensive toll roads, and more debt payments than ever before. Every year, this situation gets worse and worse. And lawmakers insist that the gasoline user tax can never be increased, so we are paying a fraction -- in real dollars -- of what we were paying in 1987. I suspect Terri would publicly agree with all I have said thus far. So along comes HB 1573 introduced by Democrats Ruth Jones McClendon and Leticia Van de Putte (who Terri never mentions in her attacks on me and Donna). This legislation as originally written was going to provide a revenue stream to VIA transit to fund their light rail system. Towards the end of the legislative session, I intervened to ask Senator Campbell to kill this bill or amend it to prevent VIA from getting any of the funds. She did so in committee (Terri was not there) and language was redrafted to prevent any funds from going to transit. VIAs taxpayer-funded lobbyists were swarming all over the hearing I attended on this bill. But what about tolls? As a majority of Senators and house members have unfortunately concluded, with no new money available to fill the projected $4 billion shortfall in revenues for new road capacity, the only tools left are toll roads and debt. I believe, as does Donna Campbell, that tolls and debt are bad public policies that should be avoided. But if the only choice is between total gridlock and a toll road, well I guess tolls it is. The very small local fee increase of $10 a year will provide a small amount for new road capacity under local control. There is nothing that requires that the funds be used for tolls. If the revenues for non-tolled roads become available, then local lawmakers can build non-tolled roads. Yes, there was no PROHIBITION that the funds could never be used for toll roads, but it is absolutely not a flip flop on Donna Campbells or my part to all of a sudden support toll roads. When you work in the Texas legislature, you rarely have the choice of a perfect bill or a less perfect bill. The choice is an imperfect bill or a really bad bill. HB 1573 was going to pass no matter what Donna Campbell did. She fixed it and made it a better bill, and deserves our thanks, not the attacks of Terri Hall. We have friends who live off of US 281 north of 1604. The traffic is so bad that we simply avoid that area at all costs between 3:00 and 7:00 pm. Our kids used to attend private school in that area but we stopped partly because the commute was so bad. Our local gridlock is getting so bad that it affects our quality of life. So what are the answers? The upcoming Constitutional amendment to dedicate oil severance tax proceeds to roads will help. But $2.5 billion more will be needed just to MAINTAIN CURRENT CONDITIONS. If you want to actually reduce congestion, it will take much more than that in new revenues. Are you willing to pay a little more if 100% went to reduce traffic congestion? I certainly would. I never asked to pay less and less each year since 1987 so that traffic could get worse. I would much rather my taxes keep up with inflation so that adequate road capacity could be built rather than pay more expensive tolls, see my taxes wasted on debt payments, or have traffic gridlock take away my freedom of mobility. I am opposed to any tax increase that increases the size or scope of government, which they practically all do. Increasing a tax or fee that goes directly to road construction does not violate this principle. We should capture as much of the motor vehicle sales tax as possible and dedicate it to roads, and pass the upcoming (Nov 2014) Constitutional amendment to dedicate excess oil severance taxes to roads. The small local fee increase, added to these measures, can only help us add new road capacity by giving us a revenue stream with which to draw down federal and state matching grants, build non-tolled new lanes, avoid diversions to transit, and prevent tolling from being our only option. LETS WORK TOGETHER TOWARD SOLUTIONS, NOT AIM OUR GUNS AT EACH OTHER WHILE PEOPLE IN THE OTHER PARTY LAUGH AS WE SLICE EACH OTHER UP.
Posted on: Thu, 21 Nov 2013 19:08:50 +0000
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