Streetsblog - October 20, 2015 - by Angie Schmitt
When Texas voters go to the polls this November they will decide an issue of enormous consequence to the future of the state.
Adding more lanes isn’t going to fix Texas’s transportation problems. Photo: TxDOT via Houston Matters
A proposed amendment to the state constitution — on the ballot as Proposition 7 — would shift about $2.5 billion in sales tax revenues to highway spending each year. All the money must be spent on highways that will be further subsidized by the absence of tolls, since the amendment expressly forbids spending on transit or even tolled lanes. There is no substantial political opposition to Prop 7, which has been sold to voters as a solution to congestion.
Last year, Texas voters decided to raid the state’s rainy day fund to pay for roads. If that vote is any indication, Prop 7 will be approved by a wide margin. The irony is that shoveling more subsidies toward free roads will probably just make traffic in Texas worse.
Read more: http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/10/20/will-texas-voters-enshrine-failed-transpo-policy-in-the-states-constitution/
When Texas voters go to the polls this November they will decide an issue of enormous consequence to the future of the state.
Adding more lanes isn’t going to fix Texas’s transportation problems. Photo: TxDOT via Houston Matters
A proposed amendment to the state constitution — on the ballot as Proposition 7 — would shift about $2.5 billion in sales tax revenues to highway spending each year. All the money must be spent on highways that will be further subsidized by the absence of tolls, since the amendment expressly forbids spending on transit or even tolled lanes. There is no substantial political opposition to Prop 7, which has been sold to voters as a solution to congestion.
Last year, Texas voters decided to raid the state’s rainy day fund to pay for roads. If that vote is any indication, Prop 7 will be approved by a wide margin. The irony is that shoveling more subsidies toward free roads will probably just make traffic in Texas worse.
Read more: http://usa.streetsblog.org/2015/10/20/will-texas-voters-enshrine-failed-transpo-policy-in-the-states-constitution/