Part-toll, Part-free?

[pineda]

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03/09/2005

Local toll roads are an option for cash-stapped TxDot

By: TOM JACOBS, HCN

Toll roads remain an option for transit needs in Galveston and Brazoria counties, according to a spokesman for the Texas Department of Transportation.

Road dollars are getting scarce as the state must divvy up highway funds that are growing slower than the need, Norm Wigington, information officer for TexDOT's Houston district told Friendswood Chamber of Commerce members last week.

"There's no money to really go around any more," he said. "The money's been spent." The Houston district alone consumes about one-third of the state's highway budget, he added.

The tight state budget was one of the main motives behind last November's Brazoria County mobility bond election. Referendum proponents made their case successfully to voters that a minimal local tax levy would demonstrate the county's committment to improved and expanded roads. Over the life of the 2-percent levy, the county will authorise about $45 million in road bonds in order to leverage ten times that amount in road funds from the state and federal government.

Maintenance costs on the state's existing roadways are exceeding the state's take of gasoline taxes at the pump, Wigington said, so the highway department is being forced to look at alternative funding methods such as toll roads.

While toll roads have long been a fixture in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and Houston has warmed to the idea of the Hardy Toll Road and Beltway 8 to relieve traffic congestion, opposition to tolling in other parts of the state is still strong.

San Antonio and Austin won't adopt any toll roads, Wigington said, even as their traffic congestion increases. And toll roads are a hard sell in places where the concept of free use of highways is as Texan as a ten-gallon hat.

So TxDOT is studying alternative tolling programs that might prove more palatable to motorists, Wigington said. One of those alternatives is the part-toll, part-free usage that will be implemented on the overloaded Katy Freeway, Interstate 10 west of downtown Houston. When work is completed on the Katy, the four middle lanes (two in each direction) will be tolled, giving motorists the option of coughing up a few dollars for a faster ride to and from downtown.

Although the E-Z Tag form of electronic toll payment and recording is proving popular, since motorists with E-Z Tags don't have to stop at toll booths, one of the state's alternative tolling ideas would eliminate the direct participation of motorists in paying. The alternative involves having the county government fund the road, and then having the state pay the county for each vehicle that travels on it. The county would assume the financial debt and risk through borrowing construction funds, and TxDOT would build the road. Electronic monitors would then tally the number of cars on the road, and the county would be reimbursed accordingly.

In response to questions about why TexDOT always seems to be rewidening and improving the same roads, Wigington said the science of predicting what a road's capacity will be is tricky.

"We can build for the year 2040, and it could be seen (by motorists and taxpayers) as a big waste for 30 years" until population overtaxes the road's capacity, Wigington said. "That's not good stewardship. You can only build so far out."

[kjb434]

Good article.

That toll concept seems a little more palatable.

The state will pay out for the road the county proposes that have high usage.

If the road does not have higher ridership, then the county is burden with the cost because they decided to build it.

Great way of TxDOT to shift responsibility.

The best benifit is that the consumer doesn't have to pay the toll out right. They just continue paying gas tax.

I have a question Texas and its transportation money:

Does all the transportation money go into a dedicated pool for transportation only, or does it go into the General fund where anybody can get at it?

Just wondering. Louisiana use to have all its transportation money thrown into the general fund where it would be taken by other programs. Governor Foster changed that by having all the transportion revenues soley placed into a transportation fund where it can only be used for the roads and multimodal transportation projects. Now road construction is happening at the fastest pace in the state. Some many roads are being improved across the state it is unbelievable. The comment about bad roads in Louisiana will just become myth.

[MaxConcrete]

Does all the transportation money go into a dedicated pool for transportation only, or does it go into the General fund where anybody can get at it?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My understanding is that 75% of the gasoline tax proceeds go into a special fund. It has a number, but I don't remember it. The fund is earmarked for TxDOT.

However, Legislators have found ways around that restriction by forcing the fund to pay for more things, such as DPS. Now I hear of a proposal to make TxDOT pay for school buses.

There is a constitutional amendment that prevents federal highway funds from being diverted to non-transportation uses.

[kjb434]

Thanks for the info. I think Louisiana had similar amendment that the Governor challenged both houses to refute. The governor also start a public campaign like Arnold is doing California for other issues.

Public sentiment sided with the Governor and the legislature passed the bill to confirm the money can't be used for other things.

I don't thing Perry would ever do this. I really hope Kay Baily Hutchison would run for Governor.

The next time TxDOT sunsets, she could clean house.