Issue Position: Transportation

Issue Position

Funding for transportation projects has dwindled to almost nothing at both the federal and state level. For example, the federal gas tax rate has remained at 18.4 cents/gallon since 1993 while the state gas tax rate of 20 cents/gallon has not been increased since 1991. As vehicles become more fuel efficient, the revenues generated by these motor fuels taxes declines.

The state, mainly through regional mobility authorities, has increasingly relied on issuing bonds and private investments to finance transportation infrastructure.

In fact, for the first time, the debt service to repay the bonds ($1.7 billion) exceeded the money appropriated for new road construction ($1.13 billion). Even though the price of paying off our debt is the equivalent of raising the gas tax by more than 10 cents a gallon, this funding mechanism allows lawmakers to claim that they did not raise taxes.

I support ending this shell game and taking real action to address the ever-increasing congestion we face in Central Texas. We need to enact a reasonable increase to the state gas tax rate and dedicate the additional revenue it generates solely to transportation projects. (Currently only about half of all gas tax revenue goes to fund transportation while the other half goes to fund the Department of Public Safety and public education.)

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