04.11.07
That’s An Awfully Small Island
Last comments on yesterday’s moratorium vote. This item from the SAEN article on it, Toll road moratorium gets overwhelming support in the House.
Krusee and four other lawmakers voted against the measure.
That’s Krusee; Deshotel; Escobar;Lucio; Merritt to be exact. And one other thing that Krusee is probably wrong about:
He urged his colleagues to consider other ways to generate highway construction money.Texas has not increased its 20-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax since 1991. The tax revenue falls far short of meeting the state’s road-building needs.
But lawmakers won’t increase the gas tax, Krusee said later: “The Legislature doesn’t want to raise taxes.”
Many lawmakers and many of the people of Texas’ eyes have been opened to the fact that toll roads, as they have been proposed in HB 3588 and the TTC, are a horrendous way to build and finance our roads. While many lawmakers may not want to raise taxes in general, raising the gas tax to free us from tolls and the TTC would be a tax increase Texans would accept, and not cause political casualties. In that context, and possibly with lawmakers like Sen. Carona and Rep. Kolkhorst on stumping for it as an alternative to tolls, the legislature not only could but probably would raise the gas tax.