02.07.08
Sen. Carona Comes Out For Raising The Gas Tax
It’s been a long time coming, too long, but a Republican is finally on the record for doing the right thing when it comes to transportation in Texas.
Texas needs to put the brakes on toll roads in Dallas-Fort Worth, he said. “There are 14 toll projects under consideration in this area, versus only six in Houston,” he said. “Don’t overload us. We just want balance.”
So how should roads be paid for? In 2009, Carona will propose raising the state gasoline tax by 10 cents a gallon to 30 cents, which would generate an additional $1 billion a year.
This is a great first step and Sen. Carona needs to be applauded and encouraged for doing this. If he were to ask, and it’s doubtful he will, there are a few things EOW would mentions. First we don’t want balance between non-tolled roads and tolled roads. We want the large majority of roads not to be tolled, we want tolls used sparingly and only when feasible, and with the people’s approval. Second he didn’t point out how much cheaper it is to pay for roads with a broad-based gas tax and that 25% of the gas tax money goes to funding public education, an added bonus. And, of course, it needs to be indexed. While Carona’s not known for sticking to his words when it comes to transportation in the past, EOW’s hopeful that he’s finally gotten the message this time.
With Williamson no longer leading TxDOT, Rep. Mike Krusee no longer running the Transportation Committee in the House, and with more and better Democrats in the House and Senate next session, Carona may finally get the help he needs to follow through and slow down the rush to toll roads. Hopefully now that Carona has come out for raising the gas tax, he will start selling it by showing what a better alternative it is to tolls.
And speaking of Krusee…
Carona said he has been told that Gov. Rick Perry will appoint former Chief of Staff Deirdre Delisi to the Texas Transportation Commission. The governor’s office declined to comment.
Carona said it would be a bad move.
“We don’t need political hacks in that position,” he said. “We need people who understand the business. We need people who understand transportation. We don’t need someone who’s unpopular with the Legislature.”
Also under consideration are Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, who isn’t seeking re-election, and former Fort Worth Councilman Bill Meadows, now a North Texas Tollway Authority member.
Carona isn’t high on Krusee, a Perry insider. But he likes Meadows.
Don’t worry Senator, few are “..high on Krusee..”. And if you don’t want the a political hack of the governor’s running TxDOT you’d better be ready to reject one or two for confirmation. Until you, and the Senate, stand up to him he’s not going to respect your opinion when it comes to who serves at this pleasure.
HeavyDuty said,
February 7, 2008 at 3:05 pm
In the last, Texas, state legislative session the Trans Texas Corridor (TTC) was put on hold, but no other method was made available for funding new road construction, or operating and maintaining existing infrastructure. So, the Perry appointees at TxDOT HQ whine that there’s no money for them to do their job; a corner they willfully backed into.
There has been an experiment in a private toll road in south Texas, the Camino-Columbia toll road, where drivers proved that they would much rather wait in snarled traffic than pay profitable toll rates. So, the lesson that Perry’s minions at TxDOT HQ learned was that you take negotiations for privately owned toll roads behind closed doors and give away the farm.
TX is now the second most populous state in the nation and is burdened with a burgeoning flow of NAFTA related traffic. This has put a tremendous, and increasing, burden on the ground transportation infrastructure of our state in the last decade, while inflation has upped the cost of building, operating and maintaining said facilities. Yet our fuel taxes have stagnated for well more than 10 years. Our state legislature wants us to believe that the only adequate solution is to turn our road and train routes over to private, campaign contributing, companies.
We’ve had one proof of the concept that common carriage transportation is not going to be sufficiently profitable for private companies, but if more proof is needed it should be on a project much smaller than the TTC. In the meantime let’s take care of the current needs by raising the state and federal fuel taxes, as the federal government’s commission has wisely suggested.