House leaders discussing broader local-option funding proposal

Would include every city

Steve Hawley, May 06, 09.

UPDATE (05/12/09, 3:40 pm): The statewide local-option bill passed the House Transportation Committee on May 12. It is headed for the Calendars Committee, which will decide whether or not to advance the bill to the full House for a vote in the final three weeks of the legislative session.

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Several leaders in the Texas House of Representatives have met to discuss the possibility of a statewide local-option gasoline tax, according to the San Antonio Express-News. A narrower version, which includes most of the state’s major population centers but excludes the Houston region, passed the Senate in April and currently sits before the House Transportation Committee.

Harris County, Fort Bend County, and the Greater Houston Partnership had unsuccessfully pushed for inclusion in the earlier bill.

In the absence of a statewide gas tax increase, the new proposal, spearheaded by Transportation Committee Chairman Joe Pickett of El Paso, would allow any municipality to raise its own gas taxes to fund local transportation projects. The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), which relies on the state gas tax for funding, is projected to run out of money for new projects by 2012 unless it drastically reduces road maintenance.

Regarding a statewide gas tax increase, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden of Bryan stated, “Raising taxes in the near future is out of the question, not because the money’s not needed but because the economy can’t take it.”

In addition to increasing the fuel tax, the new proposal, like the bill approved by the Senate, would also require a constitutional amendment ending so-called “diversions” from the state fuel tax. According to the Texas Constitution, 25 percent of gas tax revenue must go to the Available School Fund, with the remaining 75 percent funding transportation projects. The proposed amendment would direct 100 percent of the funds to transportation.

Constitutional amendments require two-thirds majorities in both the House and the Senate, as well as statewide voter approval.

With less than a month to go in the legislative session, it remains unclear if the proposal could become law. Sen. John Carona of Dallas, who chairs the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee, said last week, “There’s no question this is a transportation crisis. The Legislature continues to not focus on it.”

It does not appear that Pickett’s proposal has been introduced as a bill yet, and the House has yet to approve the earlier local-option bill. Even if the local-option legislation passes both houses and is signed by the governor, it would not take effect without the approval of the constitutional amendment.