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Op-Ed: How will we pay for new roads?
The just announced and long overdue expansion of I-35 to six lanes in Central Texas bears significance that cannot be understated. For everyone, it means safer and more efficient state and national infrastructure. For Waco and the surrounding communities in particular, it means local jobs and economic growth. During a time of clear and often justified frustration with government, it’s nice to have government be responsive to local needs. However, the announcement also highlights a big problem we face - Texas is rapidly running out of money for new road construction.
Our gas tax pays for Texas roads. Texas used to be “pay as you go”, meaning we only built what we could pay for at the time. In 2003, Texas started building roads with bonds secured by future gas tax receipts. The argument is that because of rising construction costs, it’s cheaper to build roads at today’s costs with tomorrow’s dollars rather than later when they are more expensive to build.
This year things changed - Texas will issue nearly $2 billion in bonds backed by General Revenue, meaning non-gas tax money. There is no longer enough gas tax to issue needed bonds, so now we are using other tax revenue. This can’t continue or it will begin to take away measurably from schools, health care, public safety and other state needs.
Over $1 billion of these new bonds will be used to expand I-35 through Bell and McLennan Counties to six lanes. Don’t underestimate how fortunate we are locally that this long needed expansion is getting so much attention with the so limited state resources. But also know that $1 billion expands just under 30 miles of roadway - and that’s ½ the state’s new road construction from bonds for the entire year. That just highlights how monstrous the needs across the state are for new roads, and how Texas can’t afford them with our existing system.
Texas will have 50 million people in my lifetime; double what it has now. Those people are going to need to use roads to get to school, work, shopping, etc. And in 2012 we are projected to officially run out of money for new road construction.
Every time we build a new road, we are signing up to maintain that road forever. If you buy a new car for cash, you still have to make sure you have enough money for insurance, gas, oil changes, new tires and repairs. It’s the same with building a road.
Right now we have 192,500 lane miles of road that TxDOT is responsible for maintaining. TxDOT's annual budget to maintain those roads will reach around $2.9 billion next year. For every mile we add, we add more cost per year in perpetuity for maintenance. In 2012, the maintenance cost, together with other fixed costs, will equal our gas tax revenues. That means no money for new roads.
The gas tax has remained a constant $0.20 toward roads since 1991. It is not indexed and it has not increased. And with cars getting better mileage, a gas tax cannot sustain both road construction and maintenance on its own.
Certainly, a fuel tax paying for roads is logical, since those using the roads are generally paying for them. Some say indexing the tax, say 8% instead of $0.20, would help. That’s how other sales taxes are handled. However, indexing means the tax is highest when gasoline is highest and people can least afford it. Raising the tax a specific amount is another option. Some states are even looking at charging per mile traveled, in effect metering car use.
This decade, Texans were told there were only 3 options: slow roads, no roads or toll roads.
Rick Perry’s toll road movement quickly turned into private tolls and private contracts, meaning the state condemns and takes people’s land, then leases it to a Spanish company for 50 years for that company to build and operate a toll road. They call this a “public/private” agreement, but it really means the public (State of Texas) takes the land from Texans, and the private corporation runs it all and makes a profit. Since a private company must make a profit, it is hard to get a straight answer about why a private company can do it cheaper. Fortunately, new private tolls are banned in Texas effective last September, and this fall TxDOT pulled the plug on the Trans-Texas Corridor.
But the problem remains - how do we fix our infrastructure so our children and grandchildren have enough transportation options for those 50 million Texans? We need a solution, but the public must understand the magnitude of the problem and engage with and demand that elected officials find solutions. If not, the coming I-35 expansion might be the last state road construction we see in Texas in a long, long time; and that’s not what we need.
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