Yep.
Texas voters to decide eminent domain issue November 6
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
Unless TX is VERY different than other states, take out the highway money being earmarked for bicycle paths, light rail, anywhere but highways and that $100 billion shortfall will dissapear.
Just a suggestion, use the gas tax to pay for the highways.
According to Catilin Upton, Miss Teen South Carolina, 2007, many Americans don’t have a map. That’s why they can’t find The Iraq or South Africa.
“And Williamson says that costs for labor, asphalt and related materials, right-of-way and engineering work have escalated 65 to 70 percent in the past 10 years. Meanwhile, legislative leaders refused to raise the tax.
And the state’s congressional delegation continues to have a hard time increasing the state’s share of revenue from the federal motor fuel tax. Texas only gets back about 90 cents out of each fuel tax dollar that it sends to Washington.
It’s almost as if local decision-makers are being pushed down a funnel that leads to only one source of money to meet future needs: private toll road contracts. “
The numbers are even worse than that:
1. We get LESS THAN 80 cents back from our gas tax to the Federal govt for Texas roads.
2. There is significant diversion of Texas gas tax monies to pay for DPS and Education, about 1/3rd of the $3.5 billion
This op-ed against Prop 12 explains more:
http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2007/10/vote-no-on-prop-12-highway-bond-issue.html
The solution is not Prop 12 or toll roads. Two wrongs dont make a right. The solution is really simple:
1) Dont divert the state gas tax
2) Get our money back from the Federal govt
3) index the gas tax for inflation so it doesnt fall behind.
Do all those things and we wont have a crisis anymore.
How about we kick out all the illegals, and close the border so traffic is reduced by the number of coyotes, black marketers and drug runners we shut out. Just kicking out Texas Illegals should eliminate the need for more roads in and of itself. Without the Illegals the roads we have now would handle the traffic with no stress.
Sprawl is the problem. The white voter base loves to move further and further into the fringes, but they won’t put up with the small country roads that exist there, so they demand the expansion of existing suburb-to-city roads to allow for faster commutes. They also refuse to drive into the city to shop, so they demand new suburban connector roads as well, enabling them to drive from big-box strip center to big-box strip enter without having to mix with the scum from the cities.
And they want all of these for free. “No new taxes!”
Real life doesn’t work that way. There’s no such thing as something for nothing, and nobody forced anybody to move to 258th Street and Plowed Ground Road. Those who want to live in the middle of nowhere should be willing to pay for the road to nowhere. Expecting the state as a whole to shell out the bucks for sprawl is BS. If Joe and Jane Six-Pack want all these shiny new suburban roads, they should either be willing to pay a motor fuel surtax or a toll in return. Those who use the sprawlways ought to pay for the sprawlways.