State Looks for Ways to Pay for Roads
The sixth annual Texas Transportation Forum concludes today in Austin. It was the largest yet, with contractors, state officials and others meeting to talk mobility in the state — and the added challenges they'll face this year to keep Texas moving.
Over lunch at the forum, about 1,500 participants talked transportation on Tuesday. The big question? Money — and where Texas can find it to create stable funding for transportation projects.
"You know the gas tax hasn’t been raised since 1991 in Texas," said Thomas Bohuslav, a transportation construction consultant who attended the forum. "And the cost has almost ...
Comments (1)
Gary Sawyer
To be fair to all roadway users of personal and commercial vehicles, a statewide 1% sales tax to be applied to all retail sales and fule/oil products so every driver is going to participate. Toll Roads already show their tendency to have evaders get out of honoring the toll cost so an across the board statewide sales tax increase would be most fair. Then the Comptroller can assess and distribute the funds to the Road and Bridge Districts across the state in the order of priority in repairs. Sales tax would apply to all non-exempt items as presently recognized including vehicle tires used on equipment, trailers and all vehicles that are authorized to travel the highways and roadways.