Here are the facts that were facing Governor Perry: Texas’ population is estimated to almost double by 2040 (growing by about 1,200 people a day right now). We’ll be approaching 44 to 45 million people by then. That’s not so far away. The TTC was an ambitious attempt to create a state-of-the-art, coordinated system of thousands of miles of roadways, rail lines, and gas transportation systems without raising taxes.
Fifty percent of the population in Texas is in the I-35 north/south corridor (roughly paralleling the route of the TTC). Infrastructure improvements (particularly roads) in that part of the state will be required to accommodate the growth.
What were his options?
The options were: 1) do nothing, and the state becomes so congested, the air quality gets impacted so negatively in those metropolitan areas along I-35 that you stifle economic growth. We know that doing nothing is not an acceptable alternative.
Or, 2) we could raise the gas tax by about $1/gal. That’s what the experts estimated that it would take, and it’s not sure that is even close to feasible. In recent years, it had been politically impossible to raise the gas tax by even a nickel or a dime/gal.
3) Wait for Washington to fund it? Well, good luck doing that. Our congressional delegation has not been very successful in getting Texas much more than nine cents back out of every dime that is sent to Washington in gas tax. Texas is a major donor state. Source: Environmental Working Group.
Finally, the last option was to use a Public/Private Partnership (P3) such that the private sector would build the infrastructure, and then recoup their investment via a user fee, i.e. tolls. It is important to note that P3s are a financing option, not a revenue source. Some current P3 examples in other states are: the Chicago Skyway, the South Bay Expressway in California, and the Capital Beltway high-occupancy toll lanes in DC. Here are more details on P3s from the Federal Highway Administration.
I-35 would have remained in place for those people who chose not to pay the toll. No “free” highways would have been converted to toll roads.
Some people are confused … they use the term “freeways.” There is no such thing as a freeway, no such thing as a free highway. There are only tax-funded roads and toll-funded roads.
Nevertheless, the TTC is now dead in Texas. It cannot be resurrected under any other name. In fact, the governor recently signed HB 1201, which removed all remaining references to the TTC from state statutes. Perry has not attempted to resurrect it or do an “end run” around the legislature and the people. Here is a local (Houston) story that sums up the public outcry over the TTC.
By law, toll roads in Texas can never be owned by anyone other than the state and are not being “leased away.” The public never relinquished ownership of any state roads.
The governor signed a law in 2005 that prevents a free road from being “converted” to a toll road. This is current law under the Transportation Code, Chapter 228.201 and he signed SB 18 on May 19, 2011, a bill which strengthened property owner’s rights when eminent domain is exercised by a government entity. Eminent domain “land grabs” were one of the big concerns that Texans had relating to the TTA.
Unlike the current administration in Washington, Perry finally heard the people and backed off.
Well closing the border would probably cause that to be a negative number.
Excellent posting. Perhaps that will dispel some of the many lies being spouted by Perry bashers.
I agree. In truth Texas needed the Corridor as it would have helped cut down on the traffic mess between Dallas and Houston, opened up new transportation possibilities and helped the state by bringing in even more shipping. It was a good idea that wasn’t explained very well. Too many sacred cows.