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Follow TURFWhat's a transportation tax vs a 'fee'?
January 6, 2011
Dallas Morning News blog
Is a transportation fee really a tax?
4:50 PM Thu, Jan 06, 2011 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
Rodger Jones/Editorial Writer Bio | E-mail | News tips
Yes, says Talmadge Heflin, big policy guy at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. The foundation's legislative recommendations will be the songbook for many conservative lawamakers this coming session.
I asked Heflin about this after colleague Michael Lindenberger's report that Sen. Tommy Williams put the possibility of a new vehicle registration fee on the table to raise more money for highways. Williams made a presentation to the Texas Transportation Forum. Lindenberger wrote on this blog:
Sen. Tommy Williams, R-The Woodlands, would not rule out the possibility of legislation requiring higher vehicle registration fees, or some other fee, passing this session. But he acknowledged that it's more likely that this session will be spent making changes to how Texas operates and how its projects are selected to better its reputation among lawmakers and the public. ...
The senator, who was named earlier this year to replace Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, to lead the transportation and homeland security committee, laid out a plan he hopes will catch on with his colleagues that would raise motor vehicle fees as much as $50 a year.
That increase, he said, would support $18 billion or so in new construction. That would fund, he said, the most important congestion-relief projects in all of Texas' largest cities and leave enough left over for a statewide series of safety measures.
OK, I thought, does Williams see a way through the gantlet of conservative obstacles to new revenue? Will a "fee" somehow make it through where a "tax" would not?
I took a spin through the TPPF's guide for lawmakers for the 2011 session, looking for its transportation position. Its recommendations on highway funding call for stopping diversions, setting better priorities, more transparency finding highway money in other areas, etc. And this:
Resist calls to increase the state motor fuels tax.
I didn't see the word "fees," and so I called Heflin thinking fees just might get a pass with his group. What a naive thought.
"It's the same as raising gas taxes," he said. "As long as diversions continue, fees become a tax."
Heflin said the gas tax should be regarded as a user fee that should not be siphoned off for non-highway purposes. Until lawmakers can discipline themselves on this, it's wrong to raise more money for roads.
But, I asked, isn't the "diversion" amount really an insignificant one for road construction -- a little over a billion a biennium? That would build maybe four freeway intersections every two years. It would take eight or 10 years of all the diversion money to build the I-35 project from Dallas to Denton.
Heflin doesn't deny the diversion amount doesn't build a whole lot, in a relative sense, but he said stopping the practice is an important first step.
So there it is -- another stanza in the songbook: "no new fees."