12.05.06
Eyes Wide Open
Paul Burka gets it. It’s been staring everyone in the face the whole time. All of us against toll roads have been talking about it for a while now. Yep, that’s right, the best way to finance and pay for roads is not with tolls but with the gas tax, NOT NECESSARY TO TOLL, A&M EXPERT SAYS:
Now, here is the crucial part of (David) Ellis’s testimony: There are scenarios under which roads can be financed:
1. Raise the motor fuels tax, currently 20 cents per gallon, to 51 cents. Interestingly, a Tx-Dot engineer had previously told the committee that the motor fuels tax would have to be raised to $1.40 per gallon to pay for the needed new construction. Needless to say, the Legislature is not going to raise the tax by 31 cents, much less a buck twenty.
2. Raise the motor fuels tax by 8 cents and index it to inflation, using not the consumer price index, but a special highway construction index. The rate of inflation has been 1/2% to 1 1/2 percent per year.
3. Don’t raise the gasoline tax at all. Instead, index it and put the incremental revenue in the mobility fund, where it can be used to pay off bonds. And here’s the bombshell: “Under this scenario,” Ellis said, ” it wouldn’t be necessary to toll as a means of financing, although that’s certainly an option.”
The cat is out of the bag now. Tolls aren’t the only way to pay for new roads. Will the Legislature allow Tx-Dot to go forward with its mammoth toll road plan, or will lawmakers devise a solution that will allow revenue to be used to build free roads?
With this post and his latest from the magazine, it seems like Burka finally sat down and looked at the TTC and realized what a scam it and toll roads are they way they are currently structured. Blogs have started this but to stop something like this we need all the help we can get and the bigger the voices the better. All I can say is better late than never and welcome aboard.
The only question left is do we have a lawmaker with enough power, skill and guts enough to put forth a higher gas tax or an indexing of the gas tax? It would be quite an opportunity for someone and anyone who can stop of remake the TTC would have many rural voters forever in their debt. What an opportunity.
SA Toll Party has much more here.
Eye on Williamson » Transportation In The 80th Lege, Where We Stand said,
April 19, 2007 at 12:17 pm
[...] the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC), are. He also seemed determined to do what was right, raise and index the gas tax, to fix Texas’ transportation [...]
Eye on Williamson » Governer Perry Uses Fuzzy Math In Letter To Congress said,
July 13, 2007 at 8:47 am
[...] $1.40 claim was debunked (more here): Raise the motor fuels tax, currently 20 cents per gallon, to 51 cents. Interestingly, [...]
Eye on Williamson » It’s Not The Size Of The Shorfall, It’s How It’s Made Up That Matters said,
July 19, 2007 at 12:07 am
[...] funny how this draft report is taken as gospel by Mr. Williamson and how the one from last year was not not taken serioulsy. How serious TxDOT takes a report, it seems, depends on which side of the toll road debate it comes [...]
Eye on Williamson » AAS Gives In On Tolls, Tell CAMPO Your Opinion - UPDATED said,
August 30, 2007 at 12:36 pm
[...] below have been changed. Gas tax rate has been changed to 8¢ to reflect the number from the Governor’s Business Council study.] Assuming your car gets 20 miles a gallon and your daily commute on the toll road will be 20 miles [...]
Eye on Williamson » HD-52 Run Off And Transportation said,
March 12, 2008 at 1:41 pm
[...] Texas Governor Rick Perry’s Council, that said all we need to do is raise the gas tax by 8 cents and index it to inflation and we can build all the roads we need, NO TOLLS. Oh my gosh you might be saying, 8 cents, [...]
Eye on Williamson » Wish I would have thought of it said,
October 21, 2009 at 9:59 pm
[...] Burka and Carona have an idea. Took you guys long enough. Oh yeah, blue ribbon panel. [...]