Posted on 01/25/2018 11:06:29 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Just after the end of World War I, a young Army officer who was born in Denison, Texas, was assigned to accompany an expedition of military vehicles driving across America. The mission was to determine the difficulties the nation might face moving an entire army across the continent.
Lucky thing the country was no longer at war. The convoy constantly ground to a halt on unpaved roads, sinking into mud, slipping into ditches and sliding into quicksand. The cross-country journey took 62 days, averaging about six miles an hour, something close to the speed of a leisurely walk.
The lessons of that ordeal stuck in the young officer's mind. A generation later, former Lt. Col. Dwight D. Eisenhower cited his 1919 convoy experience as a reason for Congress to authorize construction of the Interstate Highway System. The commander-in-chief also proposed paying for the new freeway system with revenues from federal excise taxes on gasoline and lubricating oil.
President Eisenhower knew not only how to get freeways built, but also how to pay for them. We could sure use his help today in Austin. Instead, we're stuck with state leaders who can't figure out how to perform the basic governmental function of paying for highway projects. Our state's political leadership needs to quit dodging this issue and make some tough decisions about how Texas will finance its future roadways.
The problem is that freeway projects cost a lot of money, but the Republicans running the show in Austin don't have the political courage to pass the cost onto taxpayers. Take, for example, what recently happened to a couple of highway expansions proposed for the Dallas and Austin areas. The Texas Transportation Commission removed them from its ten-year plans because both of those projects rely partly on revenue from toll roads.
Conservative elected officials once embraced toll roads as a way to bankroll increasingly expensive highway projects without raising taxes. But the proliferation of these pay-for-play roadways has triggered a tea party style backlash. So state lawmakers faced with a prairie fire of popular opposition have flip-flopped from toll road champions to toll road critics.
So it has come down to this: Our state's Republican leaders won't raise taxes to raise money for highways, but now they're also against toll roads. How in the world do they propose to pay for new road projects?
That's a serious concern for pragmatic local elected officials. As the Chronicle's Dug Begley reports ("Toll road pushback worries area leaders," Monday, Page 1A), government leaders in the Houston area are fretting about what this means for the future of highway construction here. The massive redesign of the freeway system around downtown Houston was included in the state's latest plan, but some local transportation officials worry about the next step in that huge undertaking. Translator
And make no mistake, Texas needs more money for highways. The American Society of Civil Engineering considers at least 38 percent of Texas roads to be in fair or poor condition, and the Federal Highway Commission rates nearly one in five bridges in our state as either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. Meanwhile, TXDOT reported that between 2002 and 2014, highway construction costs rose 80 percent. At the same time, cars and trucks are becoming more efficient, so they're burning less gasoline and the state is collecting less in tax revenues.
Texas can't make concrete and asphalt out of fairy dust. No matter how low our taxes go, no major corporation like Amazon will want to move into a state that doesn't have decent roads. Our state's elected leaders should follow Ike's example. They should face the unavoidable truth that Texas needs to raise a lot more money for transportation projects, and they need to devise a plan to get the job done.
25% of the Motor Fuel Tax money in Texas is diverted to schools.
25% of the Motor Fuel Tax money is Texas is diverted to other agencies.
And, that does not even count bike paths, etc.
So Houston Chronicle, get back to me when you want to actually discuss facts of Highway funding and not commie
big city fantasies.
Forgot about that one, I do not get to that side of town very often.
Well, just don’t use OUR tax dollars in the highway fund for hiking trails, bike paths, park maintenance, etc any more-leave that to Parks and Wildlife, Parks and Recreation in major cities-that is apart of what they are supposed to be doing-keep highway money for state highway maintenance, etc...
Newspapers lie like politicians. If the Chron is saying we need this, I’m saying we don’t. I trust Governor Patrick (Lt Gov, most powerful pol in the state) like I trust P Trump. Sheewww the liberal chron
If you cut the waste, fraud, and abuse, there’d be plenty of money.
West side’s the best side. Come out to Katy. I’ll make you a tiki drink.
It is getting to where most of those have toll lanes as they’ve converted the HOV lanes into moneymakers. I can see a yuppie couple spending that kind of money for a faster commute. Some places, it’s your only choice if you don’t want to leave home at 4:30 a.m.
Our papers have become worthless.
Texas has actually ended most of the diversions in the second category. They will need a constitution amendment to end the education diversion.
That’s what I thought. For example, the US290 rebuild to the NW of downtown Houston includes a reversible toll lane.
It's all of those orange cones, I think. They go out mid-November and fester until spring when they may or may not actually work on the road.
Longest line of cones I ever saw actually covered three states on the same road! I-80 near Chicago - the line of cones stretched through IL, IN, and MI. You think they get those for free?
I'm not a rocket scientist but um maybe cut other spending? Roads are necessary, half the crap the government funds isn't.
Other than The miserable Traffic, I like The Woodlands/Conroe/Willis area where Im at.
But I appreciate the offer. Cheers..
The HOV lanes up around The Woodlands are just an additional fast lane, I would say less that 15% of the cars that use it have more than 1 person in them. But since there is little to no enforcement, why not.
I do admit that we can be a bit spoiled when it comes to our roads.
The writer apparently is not one who walks or runs. 6 miles an hour is not close to a leisurely walk.
“West side’s the best side. Come out to Katy. I’ll make you a tiki drink.”
I go to that Jewish town for BBQ.. Rosenberg
Boring, to much irrelevant data. If I want to read a tome I’ll go to the library.
The reason is to provide big lump payouts via big construction programs in election years. Inevitably, the money runs out well before the bonds are paid off, which requires new bonds and higher taxes.
Christie has been better than the previous idiots about this, but it is still NJ. The last tax increase included a provision that gas tax money was to be spent only on transportation.
There's little difference in the amount of corruption in contracting between the two finance methods, but pay-as-you-go doesn't leave debt for the grandkids.
Whether or not you leave bad roads for them depends on the quality of politicans you elect, not the finance method.
Swinging Door?
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