Link to article here.

We agree that the State must get back to funding the core Constitutional functions of government, but funding core functions and cuts in spending and tax relief are not mutually exclusive.

Speaker says Texas needs more than tax cuts
Associated Press
January 28, 2013

AUSTIN, TX -- Texas needs more than tax cuts to thrive and will require investments in education, infrastructure and water to keep growing, House Speaker Joe Straus told the Texas Association of Broadcasters on Monday.

The San Antonio Republican said the state's rapidly growing population and economy means the state must spend more on what he called the government's core responsibilities. The speaker oversees the Texas House and sets the legislative agenda.

Link to article here.

Ohioans sideline sale of Ohio Turnpike
By Terri Hall
January 19, 2013

In a victory for state sovereignty, property rights, and taxpayers, the grassroots managed to defeat Ohio Governor John Kasich’s proposal of selling off the Ohio Turnpike to a private toll operator using a controversial public private partnership (P3). The state officially pulled the plug on the P3, announcing the turnpike would stay public but the state will issue bonds backed by future toll revenues to generate needed cash. Kasich considered the turnpike an ‘unused asset’ that he could sell-off for a half century to get $3 billion now for other road projects. But Ohioans had a different opinion.

At the first public hearing held by the state to get public feedback last summer, 75 of 77 attendees said they were against privatizing the Ohio Turnpike. The Cuyahoga County Commissioners in northern Ohio opposed the sale. Many pointed to the poor conditions of the Indiana Toll Road once it was handed to Spain-based Cintra and Australian company Macquarie in a 75-year lease. Rates more than doubled, maintenance went down, and the concession company is struggling financially.

Link to article here.

Lawmakers taking Texas off fiscal cliff with road debt
By Terri Hall
January 10, 2013
Examiner.com

Thirty-one billion and counting. That’s how much road debt Texas Governor Rick Perry and Texas lawmakers have racked-up since they abandoned pay-as-you-go and started down the road of borrow and spend road policy. In fact, federal data shows Texas has the highest road debt of any state in America. Texas officials have been building roads with credit cards, and they're maxed out. Local debt incurred by toll authorities, cities and counties is equally out of control with just the North Texas Tollway Authority at $9 billion and climbing.

Indeed, the transportation picture looks bleak. If lawmakers fail to get the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) adequate traditional funding this session, Texans will be faced with more of the same failed policies -- unsustainable debt, failing toll roads subsidized with tax dollars, and public private partnerships that sell-off our public infrastructure to private corporations that charge oppressively high tolls with impunity for generations.

Texas, we can do better.

Today, the roads offer smooth sailing for gridlock-weary commuters willing to pay the price. But far fewer people are using the turnpikes than officials predicted, which means the highways generate far less revenue than expected to retire their debts.

Link to article here.

All three state leaders, Governor Rick Perry, Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, and Speaker Joe Straus said transportation and funding infrastructure as a state priority this session. It's incumbent upon Texans that it's not just lip service. We need bold leadership, and not the debt, toll road, public private partnership Perry model that got into this mess.

83rd Legislature Faces a New Set of Priorities
By Texas Tribune Staff
Texas Tribune
January 6, 2013

The last time Texas lawmakers convened in Austin, they were absorbed with numbers and boundaries: how to make ends meet with a deflated state budget and draw new district maps the courts would approve.

But with improving fiscal conditions and redistricting mostly in the rearview mirror, they are approaching the 2013 legislative session with some pressing policy questions, from whether to introduce private school vouchers into the state’s public education system to whether they should put in effect — and accept financing for — major provisions of the federal health care overhaul.

Link to article here.

Governor lays out plan to eliminate gas tax, increase sales tax
By Doris Taylor
WTKR.com
January 8, 2013

During a press conference today, Governor Bob McDonnell laid out a new plan that would eliminate the gas tax but increase the sales tax.

He wants to raise the state sales tax from 5% to 5.8% percent and wants to put the money into transportation. 

He said he’d do away with the 17.5 cent gas tax. 

Virginia would become the first state without a gas tax.

Let Texans vote on highway user fees

Posted Tuesday, Jan. 01, 2013

By Steve Stagner

Special to the Star-Telegram

Texas has 80,000 miles of state highways and a rapidly growing population, but no long-term funding plan for repairing, replacing and upgrading our highway system.

It's hard to imagine there's a problem when the region is awash in construction equipment and orange barrels. But the current level of construction masks a sober reality. This program has been built on a mountain of debt -- a way of funding that is completely unsustainable. And, unfortunately, the state's credit card is maxed out.

Link to article here.

Toll Agency hits age 10 with stability, big plans
By Ben Wear
American-Statesman Staff
December 28, 2012

There was a time, early in the history of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, when it was by no means clear that the agency would see its 10th birthday this fall.

Neither was it clear that it would have two toll roads open by now, nearly a billion dollars in assets and enough credibility that local elected officials, with little or no constituent blow-back, could vote this year to loan the authority $130 million to add toll lanes to MoPac Boulevard. Under that arrangement, the authority has 25 years to pay back the money, plus $100 million in what amounts to interest.

Those express lanes on MoPac (Loop 1), to run from near Lady Bird Lake to Parmer Lane, should be under construction by summer 2013 and take about two years to open.