10.15.07
Carona, Krusee, Williamson Have “Love Fest” At Annual Meeting Of Corporate Think Tank
The “so-called” Texas Taxpayers and Research Association (TTARA) – see board members here – hosted a discussion regarding “How to Fund Texas’ Growing Transportation Demands”. The discussion included the Texas trasnportation “brain trust” of Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas), Rep. Mike Krusee (R-Irrelevant), and Ric Williamson head of TxDOT, attempting to tell corporations and the media what they think is needed to fund our roads. Here was a summation of what they perceive the problem to be, as taken from this report on the discussion.
Moderator Bill Allaway of TTARA summed up their point of agreement, saying that all three men believed that the root of the current transportation funding dilemma stems from the state’s unwillingness to properly price the cost of transportation.
If that means the legislature and governor have been defunding or transportation infrastructure in Texas for the last 15 years then they’re right. That of course is not what it means. What that does mean is (1) It isn’t our fault and (2) We still don’t’ get what the problem is. Here’s a great quote from Sen. Carona about how friendly he and his former foe, Williamson, are becoming.
Williamson made the remarks during a roundtable discussion this morning on transportation with Carona and House Transportation Committee Chairman Mike Krusee (R-Round Rock) at the annual meeting of the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association. And with Carona warmly accepting Williamson’s commitment to work on gas tax reform as a roads funding solution, it certainly appeared that the two men have decided to take a step back from their often fractious dialogue on public-private toll road partnerships.
Indeed, this morning’s talk on the future of transportation funding in Texas found the men sharing much more common ground than bones of contention, leading Carona at one point to describe the talk as “a love fest.”
Well he may have said he’ll work on “gas tax reform” but what Williamson is quoted as saying in the report betrays that newfound “love”. (It’s also important to note that Williamson uses the term “reform” when speaking of the gas tax. That’s a long time GOP framing trick. People are more receptive to the word reform. But how are we talking about “reforming” the gas tax? It’s a tax increase and Williamson will soon go on to describe how the public is paralyzed on the funding choices and he can’t even say “gas tax increase”. Talk about paralyzed). Now back the the “love fest”. Love is a two-way street Senator, and though Williamson might be giving the right signals, wink wink, his words betray him. Here’s Williamson’s sales pitch on the gas tax . (EOW’s comments in italics).
Williamson quantified the problem in a number of ways. He first said that the gas tax has not come close to keeping up with the costs of building and maintaining roads. (True, that’s because it hasn’t been since 1992). If the motor fuels tax had been indexed to keep up with inflation as well as the growing demand for highways, it would be at 96 cents per gallon today. (This is a strawman argument, because it hasn’t been indexed. Not to mention where’s the data on that, indexed beginning when?) The combined state and federal gas taxes are currently at 38.4 cents per gallon.
He added that the taxes collected for the state’s transportation system currently pay for about a third of the system’s costs of construction and maintenance. “Not one strip of road in Texas pays for itself,” he said. Meanwhile, if one looks at the cost per gallon that commuters are paying to use the public toll road systems in Dallas and Houston, it comes out to between $1.25 and $1.50 a gallon. (OK, I guess, but again, where’s the documentation? Also go here to find out the real difference between tolls and price per gallon.)
Williamson said the gap between funding sources and future needs has grown so great that the public is paralyzed by the choices it faces. (See above. The public is not. The public is willing to be lead on this issue. Elected officials are paralyzed with fear because they don’t want to raise taxes, no matter how much it’s needed). “We’re not prepared to talk about 95 cents per gallon (in gas taxes) or going to all toll roads or a consumption driven model to pay for roads,” he said. (We don’t have to be. All that needs to be done, according the the Governor’s Business Council report from last year, is raise the gas tax by 8 cents and index it to inflation and it will pay for all the roads we need in the future. No tolls needed.)
Making disingenuous comments, while they are what we’ve all become accustomed to with him, wouldn’t seem to be the best way to start selling the public on a gas tax increase. That shouldn’t make Sen. Carona or Rep. Krusee feel at ease with Williamson, this is just more of the same from him. As far as Carona and Krusee are concerned, well, they’re jobs are on the line and they’ll say anything right now to make voters believe they’ve had a change of heart on this issue. EOW isn’t buying it. This statement from Krusee is disingenuous as well:
Krusee, though, pointed out that his amendment last session to index the gas tax went down in flames. The problem is that the public just doesn’t want to pay for roads, he said. They shot down reform of the gas tax as well as public-private toll partnerships. That leaves bonding as the only way to finance roads, but that method also has problems as it pushes the costs to future generations, he said.
The public did not shoot down a gas tax increase or PPP’s. The legislature did. And we all know how Krusee put his political career on the line to fight for a gas tax increase and against PPP’s last session. Yeah, right. The only reason Krusee filed a gas tax increase last session was so he could say what he’s saying now, nobody wanted it. Well we aren’t buying that either. Just because a majority in the legislature was afraid to raise the gas tax doesn’t mean the people were against it. Carona takes a stab at the end regarding what it will really take to fix the problem.
Carona said that he agreed with the over the horizon ideas presented by his counterparts but that to convince lawmakers to change course on transportation should be done in baby steps – and on a biennial basis. He added that the Big Three – Perry, Dewhurst and Craddick– must push transportation funding in a more prominent manner. Big changes in public policy only happen when the state’s leadership support them, Carona said. “It’s important for them to make public statements on this,” he said. “We need their help.”
Almost, the current big three won’t change the current policy. Therefore what’s needed is a new “Big Three”, as well as new chairs for both transportation committees in the legislature. With new leadership, will come new policies, and then and only then will things begin to change.