Quicksand?!
I have some ideas. No Toll Roads.
Stop spending highway money on bike paths, mass transit, parks, greenbelts, diverted to the general fund and other non-road activities. Then, get back to me about any shortfall.
If it is truly a real shortfall and not a fake one, I’d be willing to see an increase in the gas tax, but you have to prove to me the money you are now getting is not being wasted first.
There is not a major thoroughfare in the Houston area that is not a toll road. I have friends down there that pay a regular $200 to $300 bill every month for tolls. And that’s with the discounted auto-pass box.
I’m willing to bet the most expensive part of a road is the labor needed to build it. And yet we have tens of millions of able bodied males rotting in our prisons. Why cant we put them to work rebuilding our infrastructure? Why do we pay 10 union guys to stand around while one does the actual work?
Sell bonds to get the funds.
Pay the bonds off over time.
Who knew?
Where would we be today, if our grandparents had acted this way?
I’m so sick of incompetence.
What we collect in gas taxes would support the bonds.
Why do we need new roads? It isn’t solely due to roads being old. There are many more cars on the roads. And all those cars are being filled with gasoline that is taxed.
The better mileage argument fails, for that reason.
Our elected officials lie their asses off.
And can someone explain how cost supposedly went up 80% when wages have been flat for decades?
As usual, the Houston Chronicle is lying.
According to Texas Comptroller, in 2000 Texas collected 2688.2M$ in motor fuel taxes. In 2015, Texas collected 3,446.2M$. Those are different years than the article mentions, but still an increase of 28% over 15 years is not a decrease in absolute revenue. The article specifically states that the state is collecting less revenue - that is not the truth.
Make “prevailing wage” illegal and watch the cost of construction projects nosedive.
Here’s an idea.
No money for bike lanes, they have no skin in the game.
Some kind of tax for electric vehicles. No hard, propane powered have been paying it for 40 years.
No more extras on construction. I don’t need a Lone Star on every bridge.
Then raise gasoline and diesel .10 a gallon.
Got on a toll road in Austin a few months back. They mail you an invoice. It’s typically no more than a few bucks. I never got the bill so I forgot all about it. Then one day I got a bill for around $70. I called and was told it was late fees. Because I never saw a bill, typical Postal service, she gave me a $20 discount.
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.
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...
If you cut the waste, fraud, and abuse, there’d be plenty of money.
I'm not a rocket scientist but um maybe cut other spending? Roads are necessary, half the crap the government funds isn't.
The writer apparently is not one who walks or runs. 6 miles an hour is not close to a leisurely walk.
Boring, to much irrelevant data. If I want to read a tome I’ll go to the library.
As a Texan, the reason that the proposals failed was that they included funding for toll roads. Toll roads are hated here in TX because if our tax dollars are going to pay for the road (which they invariably do on toll roads), then we refuse to pay each time we go down a road that our tax dollars have already funded.
As also stated, we have been spending too much on non-highway projects like bike paths, carpool lanes, and the like when the funding instead could have gone to fixing/expanding the road network.