Freeways aren't free, and Texas politicos don't want to pay

The Houston Chronicle ^ | January 3, 2018 | Houston Chronicle Editorial Board

[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.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“Swinging Door?”

Haven’t been there in a long time. Are they still there? What about Schulze’s?

I still think Makeska’s in Columbus has the best Sunday BBQ Buffet. My son and I met Jerry one time. He was in his Tux and walking around the restaurant. Think at the time he was 94 and still driving his pickup truck.

[Milton Miteybad]

45,59, Ih10, Highway 6, 290, 610, 288, LaPorte Freeway etc are not toll roads, they are traffic nightmares, but not Toll Roads.

Only the HTR, Parts of Beltway 8 and the Grand Parkway are to my knowledge toll roads down here.

There are managed toll lanes (called the Katy Tollway) running from Katy to Loop 610 you can take if the mood strikes. If you want to pay the toll, you can zip past the traffic in the free lanes.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

It’s very apparent that you have never actually worked on a heavy construction project.

[Dalberg-Acton]

I-45

[sciencewriter86]

[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.]

Funny thing about gas taxes.

In my old state of Washington the gas stations—all self service unlike Oregon’s—posted the price of gas AND the tax bite right on the pumps. In a very short time the legislature had the cost of taxes/gallon removed from the pumps by law.

And, in Washington, the gas tax money goes into the “General (tax) fund,” where it goes to social services and every thing else the politicians fund for their parasitic friends, who are often illegal voters.

[PAR35]

45,59, Ih10, Highway 6, 290, 610, 288, LaPorte Freeway etc are not toll roads, they are traffic nightmares, but not Toll Roads. Only the HTR, Parts of Beltway 8 and the Grand Parkway are to my knowledge toll roads down here.

Westpark is toll. But add US 59 and I69 to the free ones.

[ro_dreaming]

JoSixChip wrote:
There is not a major thoroughfare in the Houston area that is not a toll road.

I LIVE here, and, what? There are a few toll roads here, the Sam Houston Tollway (Beltway 8), the Hardy Toll Road (expressway from downtown to IAH and The Woodlands), 99/Grand Parkway, and the Fort Bend County Toll Road. They are putting in a toll road on 288 (Downtown to basically Hwy 6 to the South). That’s it. There is no East/West toll (I-10), Loop 610 is no toll. 59 is no toll. Now, there is a toll for the HOV lanes, if you’re less than the prescribed number of people.

My toll bill is about 10 bucks a month.

#N8tiveTxn

[jhastey]

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.