12.06.06
More On The Study Commission on Transportation Financing
On November 28th the interim Study Commission on Transportation Financing met and a report from the Governor’s Business Council (GBC) was presented to the committee. As the post below points out the report, Shaping the Competitive Advantage of Texas Metropolitan Regions: The role of Transportation, Housing & Aesthetics, shows that indexing the gas tax will make the need for tolls non-existent.
You can watch the video here. The report was presented by David Ellis and Tim Lomax of the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) and the GBC. You would have thought they said that the world is going to end in a week. Several members of the committee, and I won’t name names - I’ll just say the Chair of the House Transportation Committee is on this committee - seemed to take this very personally.
It’s worth it to watch because this study was done not to tear apart toll roads but to see what the best way to finance transportation in Texas. That it blows a huge hole in toll roads is just a happy coincidence. Everyone was stunned, those who wrote the report were “floored”, called it “mind boggling” even, by the findings. The committee members were also irked and became testy by the findings and because they are just finding out about this now. This means this was never even studied back in the days when HB 3588 was rushed through the Legislature. Tolls are just a tool in the tool box, to coin their phrase.
Our representatives lied to us that toll roads were the only way to finance our transportation projects in the future. That is clear, we now know for sure.
Eye on Williamson » Rep. Mike Krusee Will File Bill To Index The Gas Tax said,
December 11, 2006 at 11:37 am
[…] Here’s what was said in this article, Toll road argument thrown into doubt, from the SAEN about the recent Study Commission hearing on the TTI report: While the study doesn’t recommend scrapping statewide toll plans, it does say toll dollars should stay in local areas and that the gas tax should be indexed to inflation to finance bonds. […]
Eye on Williamson » Coverage Of The TTI Report On Local TV said,
December 13, 2006 at 3:06 pm
[…] Fox 7 has a few videos. First this one, on the opening of the northern part of SH 130. They also have another video featuring Sal Costello (look under Related Items), great job Sal! Sal Costello points out, in this video, that the TTI report shows that tolls nor a gas tax increase are necessary to pay for our roads in the future. Just indexing the gas tax will do it. You can also hear this statement from TxDOT’s Randall Dillard: If solving the state’s growing transportation problems were so easy the Texas Legislature would have already found it. […]
Eye on Williamson » Perry Punts On Gas Tax, Will Lege Debate It? said,
December 14, 2006 at 9:35 am
[…] Ben Wear has finally written a column about the recent TTI report, State knocks report touting gas tax hikes. You can get the report here. The report, if you’ll recall, told Texas taxpayers that indexing the gas to inflation is the best way to finance future road construction in our state. (For the simple math on this click here). I think it’s fair to say that this report has everyone at TxDOT, TTC, and most of our state elected representatives, that have been telling us the stories of “toll roads paved with gold”, quite flustered. State transportation officials rebutted that analysis Wednesday, arguing that it understates future needs and overstates what the tax would raise. […]
Eye on Williamson » The Lege Caves, And Corporate Toll Roads Move Ahead said,
May 25, 2007 at 9:41 am
[…] this bill will take the interim to study how to fund our roads. But the fact that Perry’s own Governor’s Business Council (GBC) has already released a report that says indexing the gas tax will pay for all our future […]
Eye on Williamson » It's A Moratorium On Nothing said,
June 4, 2007 at 9:30 am
[…] his resolve but instead the exact opposite happened. We’ve found out that not only are corporate toll roads a bad idea but they’re a bad investment and rip-off for taxpayers too. With all this and a veto proof majority it only makes sense that the […]
Eye on Williamson » The "New Way Forward" On Tolls said,
June 15, 2007 at 11:26 am
[…] toll roads are a horrible way to finance the building of ALL our roads in Texas. Lest we forget the TTI report of November 2006 that informed us that raising and indexing the gas tax would pay for most if not all of these road […]
Eye on Williamson » Governor Perry Uses Fuzzy Math In Letter To Congress said,
July 15, 2007 at 5:00 pm
[…] $1.40 claim was debunked (more here): Raise the motor fuels tax, currently 20 cents per gallon, to 51 cents. Interestingly, a Tx-Dot […]
Eye on Williamson » It’s Not The Size Of The Shorfall, It’s How It’s Made Up That Matters said,
July 18, 2007 at 11:26 pm
[…] 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 […]
Eye on Williamson » TxDOT And Williamson County Road Money said,
December 5, 2007 at 1:38 pm
[…] 1992. Readers may also remember that about a year ago the Governor’s Business Council (GBC) released a study showed that with a one time 8¢ raise of the gas tax, then indexing it to inflation, and we could […]
Eye on Williamson » HD-52 Run Off And Transportation said,
March 11, 2008 at 10:41 am
[…] in 2006 the Governor’s Business Council, yes that was Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry’s Council, that said all we need to do is […]
Eye on Williamson » 2030 Committee say Texas needs $313 billion for transportation said,
December 18, 2008 at 12:14 pm
[…] knew we were deep in a whole two years ago ($86 billion), and it could have been solved - the TTI told us then - with a minor rise in the gas tax and indexing it to inflation, and we wouldn’t need toll […]