Report: Texas pols lead nation in funding from highway groups

Almost $13 million in 2008

Vilas Bhuchar, Nov 16, 09.

Texas political candidates received more campaign money in 2008 from highway interest groups than those of any other state, according to the US Public Interest Research Group’s (US PIRG) new report, Greasing the Wheels: the Crossroads of Campaign Money and Transportation Policy.

The report also notes that despite crumbling infrastructure, Congress directed about 90% of 2008 transportation earmark dollars to new highways and other new construction instead of to repairing or maintaining bridges, tunnels, or overpasses.

The report provides details of Congressional earmark requests from the 2008 transportation appropriations bill and examines campaign contributions from highway construction interests to both state and federal candidates. It concludes that there is a direct connection between campaign financing from these highway interest groups and transportation funding decisions.

In a US PIRG press release, Lisa Gilbert, an author of the report, is quoted as saying, “In our current campaign system, elected officials must raise huge sums from major donors to win reelection. In part because of this, we believe that transportation spending is skewed toward road-widening and new highway projects favored by developers, road builders and the other interests who make those contributions.”

In analyzing the report, Houston Tomorrow found that Texas state candidates received more contributions from highway interest groups than any other state’s politicians. In 2008, these candidates received $1,705,566 from transportation interest groups and $6,321,430 from construction interest groups for a total of $8,026,996 from highway interest groups.

Furthermore, Texas federal candidates received the fourth highest amount of contributions from highway interest groups (behind Illinois, Arizona, and New York). In 2008, these federal candidates received $2,653,761 from construction interest groups and $2,252,825 from highway interest groups for a total of $4,906,586.

Thus, in total, Texas state and federal candidates received $12,933.582 from highway interest groups, highest in the nation.

The report concludes by recommending reform of current campaign finance policy so that “transportation decisions are made based on smart policy rather than politics” and includes the following two recommendations

• Congress should move to a voluntary system of publicly financing our elections that is focused on incentivizing small-dollar donors and would raise the voices of individuals, keep elections competitive, and reduce the special access and influence of large corporate donors.
• Congress should spend taxpayers’ money more wisely by focusing transportation dollars on solving our nation’s biggest problems. Federal transportation money should be spent only on projects that produce real results over the long haul - for example, by reducing our dependence on oil, curbing global warming pollution, alleviating congestion, improving safety, and supporting healthy, sustainable communities.