Category Archives: funding

You Betcha. 3 Things Businesses in a Northern State Say About Transportation Funding Sources.

A survey of businesses in Minnesota by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce reveals how these businesses feel about filling that state’s $6 Billion, over 10 year, transportation funding deficit.

The results:

  • Largely Oppose new taxes even for transportation funding
  • 64%  support dedicating a sales tax on automobile parts and rental cars
  • 2nd most popular funding option- fees
    •  Specifically, increasing license tab fees & dedicating those fees to roads. 

Transit Talk (Twin Cities)…

East & West Texas Editorials Support Raise the Gas Tax. 3 Reasons Why.

Both the Beaumont Enterprise and the Midland Reporter-Telegram ran editorials supporting raising the gas tax. 

  • 2015 Prop 7 is not enough for transportation funding
  • The state still needs $5 billion per year for transportation funding
  • “The only realistic answer is increasing the gasoline tax, which hasn’t changed since 1991”

Midland Reporter-Telegram | Texas highways need more funding, higher gasoline tax

 

2015 House Interim Charges. 7 Committees. Funding. Tollroads. Self Driving Cars. Rail. Ports.

Transportation

Funding | Tollroads | THE INTERIM CHARGES

  • Appropriations: funding that accurately address transportation needs
  • County Affairs: private roadways from 2015’s Prop 5; is it undue competition between industry and counties or expand it?
  • Elections: local bond elections
  • Homeland Security & Public Safety: commercial motor vehicle violations, motor vehicle “two steps, one sticker”
  • Judiciary & Civil Jurisprudence: examine the Texas Lemon Law
  • Transportation: roadway flows…

8 Reasons Texans Against High Speed Rail Oppose It. Courtesy of A&M

  • High speed rail will take the same amount of time to get to Houston or Dallas in door-to-door travel time
  • Does not solve roadway traffic congestion
  • high speed rail “solid embankment may interrupt agricultural operations”
  • high speed rail solid embankment may interupt  migration patterns of local wildlife”
  • ” disrupt the peace and quiet for families used to living in rural areas”
  • Negatively impact rural proeprty values
  • taxpayer subsidies 
  • impair private property rights

The Battalion…

5 Results from a Pay as You Drive State Pilot Program. 3rd party procurement Opportunity.

Oregon is the only state to be testing, pay as you drive, taxing structure for its citizens.

How does it work? A green box is attached to a car’s steering column, and reports speed, braking, and distance to a 3rd party contractor. 

The fee for pay as you drive in Oregon? 1.5 cents per mile.

Unlike the gas tax a Prius and F-150 would pay equal amounts.

It changes driving habits. One Prius driver reported breaking less.

A non-GPS device option will be available for statewide use, to…

AG Opinion Request: Chair of Transportation Committee Asks About Design Build. 3 Points to Know Now.

  • The question before Attorney General Paxton:  Can TXDOT enter into Design Build contracts in fiscal year 2016-2017 with funds appropriated for that year.
  • Why is this a question? Design Build Rider 47 to HB 1 and the Transportation Code Conflict.
    • Rider 47 has a higher threshold, $250 million, than statute, which has a $150 million threshold
  • Opposition thinks Rider 47 is unconstitutional. Can’t go changing substantive law in the budget, but you can as long as no court or…

3 Ways Business is Pitching Transportation Funding in Land of Cheese Heads

  • Transportation funding is a Return on Investment:
    • it is an enhanced tax base
    • promotes new development
    • provides a safe, efficient and reliable mode of transporting raw materials, finished products and people
  • Delays in transportation cost people and businesses money
  • Fuel efficeint cars are good for the environment and our pocketbooks but bad for transportation funding, and we can fix that

Green Bay Press Gazette | Invest in transportation infrastructure

The Other High Speed Rail. Missed Deadlines. Over Budget. 5 Warning Signs.

The Los Angeles Times in a special piece dove deep into the California high speed rail project and found it likely over budget & late.

5 reasons why:

  • No Settled Route. The deadline for phase 1 is 2022, and there is no set route throught the mountains. To connect L.A. and S.F. via high speed rail will require 36 miles of tunnels into the mountains.
  • Rising Costs. The 1st phase, according to a confidential 2013 report, is 31 % over budget. The state has not used the state’s main project…

Rural Road Funding. 2 Reasons Funding Remains Inequitable. 4 Ways to Fix it.

Background

  • Oil producing counties are a state revenue source. Eagle Ford Shale counties alone contribute $323 million of severance tax receipts a year.
  • Unfair revenue exchange with oil counties. In the same year that DeWitt county contributed $57.5 Million in severence taxes, it received $112,000 from the comptroller for money generated from gasoline tax remittances and overweight axle fees
    • Now the oil producing counties are left with dangerous roads. This was the catalyst for a…