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Follow TURFHighway lobby wants EVERY kind of tax increase for roads
Note that Transportation Advocates of Texas is code for highway lobby and the politicians who are beholden to them. They're "advocating" for every kind of new tax increase imaginable to pay for roads, including MORE toll roads (the most expensive way to fund roads), higher STATE gas tax, higher LOCAL gas tax (they're pushing the "local option" gas tax after taxpayers soundly defeated the measure last session), as well as more public private partnership (PPPs) toll roads which is the MOST expensive way to fund toll roads (private toll operators charge 75 cents PER MILE to access our PUBLIC roads). The RTC is a mega MPO, a governmental body, using YOUR tax dollars to LOBBY for higher taxes.
In the interest of full disclosure, AFTER lawmakers end ALL diversions from road taxes (from gas taxes and return the vehicle sales tax to roads instead of funding general government with it) and if its determined there are still road funding shortfalls, then we believe a 10 cent statewide gas tax increase is preferable to continued reliance on tolling and PPPs (a 10 cent gas tax increase would be less than one cent PER MILE on average, versus 25 cents to $1.50 mile for toll roads).
Transportation leaders mapping out legislative agenda for next year's session
BY Rodger Jones / Dallas Morning News / Monday, July 12, 2010
North Texas' Regional Transportation Council on Thursday will discuss its agenda for next year's legislative session. Items in the draft document look a lot like what the RTC and other local leaders were asking for in 2009, by looks of the draft agenda on the RTC's website.
Money issues on the tentative wish list:
• 10-cent increase in the motor fuels tax
• indexed fuel tax
• county-by-county elections on new transportation revenues
• phasing out diversions of transportation-related revenue to general state expenses These items strike me as very ambitious in a year that most lawmakers are approaching with dread. The state is going to be dealing with a potential deficit of $18 billion, and that means big cuts need to be made in programs. Higher taxes on gasoline will not be an easy fight.
Still, transportation funding is losing ground, and it's not like urban growth is going to stop anytime soon. If local leaders back off on their aggressive posture, seems to me they end up three spaces farther back. Losing the fight against gridlock is bad for business; the converse is also true, some researchers have concluded.
Turning now to the RTC draft's main non-revenue issues, mostly about public-private partnerships. Highlights of what leaders will be discussing:
reauthorizing TxDOT to enter in additional PPPs to build new toll roads
new safeguards for PPPs, such as buyback provisions and non-compete clauses that might barring the state from building its own tollways near private ones.
giving agencies like NTTA first call on toll roads and TxDOT first call on HOV/toll lanes on otherwise free highways
One item on the agenda surprises me. Here it is verbatim:
Establish "buy America" provisions to encourage domestic involvement [in PPPs] from the private sector.
Whoa! Does this mean the RTC thinks it's a bad idea to do business with foreigners, including consortia headed by the Spanish infrastructure giant Cintra? Cintra groups are now doing two huge local projects, the new LBJ and the North Tarrant Express. KBHutchison was campaigning on this issue, and it rubbed me wrong.
The whole discussion plays into nativist talk about "foreigners buying up our roads." The other way to look at it: The state put out bids, and foreigners made the superior proposals for long-term leases.
An overall legislative agenda has been shaped in a series of meetings by the statewide advocacy group Transportation Advocates of Texas. It's made up of elected and civic leaders from across the state.