Broken promises? Texas lawmakers fail to end gas tax diversions
Broken promises? Texas lawmakers fail to end gas tax diversions
By Terri Hall
March 28, 2013
Examiner.com
Texas Governor Rick Perry, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, Texas House Speaker Joe Straus, and House and Senate budget writers have so far failed to end diversions from the gas tax and help fix the structural road funding shortfall in the budgets passed last week. Perry, Dewhurst, and Straus all promised to end diversions of the gas tax in an effort to enact truth in budgeting -- to ensure taxes collected for a specific purpose actually go to fund that purpose.
The Texas Constitution restricts the use of state gas tax revenues to "...the sole purpose of acquiring rights-of-way, constructing, maintaining, and policing such public roadways..." Yet lawmakers continue to raid the gas tax to fill holes in the budget for non-road purposes like funding public pensions and benefits for state agencies other than the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT).