I'm voting against all my state's propositions today.
Billions Of Dollars At Stake In Tuesday's Elections
Posted: Nov 6, 2007 08:31 AM CST
Even though billions of dollars are at stake, hardly anyone went out for early voting.
The most talked-about item on the ballot is Proposition 15, which calls for $3 billion in bonds to create a cancer research institute in Texas.
Another billion dollars is up for approval in Proposition 4. That money would go to pay for maintenance, repair and construction projects in Texas.
Proposition 2 calls for $500 million in bonds to finance educational loans to students.
The largest bond out there is Proposition 12, which calls on $5 billion in bonds to help improve and maintain Texas roadways.
If approved, the 2009 legislature will decide where and how much of that money is spent in Austin.
The numbers are daunting. More than 1,000 people become a part of Texas every day, and more than 500 new cars hit Central Texas roadways every week.
To top it off, 80 percent of all North American Free Trade Agreement traffic trucks will travel through Texas.
"A recent study published by the Texas Transportation Institute said that Austin was the most congested city in the United States, in terms of its population level," said Lawrence Olsen of the Safer Roads Coalition.
It's that growth that has Texas Department of Transportation searching for funds to maintain and improve the roadways.
"If we're going to build new roads, we have to find new sources of revenue," said Chris Lippincott of TxDOT. "Very quickly, we're reaching a point where the money we have coming into TxDOT through gas taxes will only be enough to maintain the system that we have."
Recent construction of toll roads has eased some of the congestion throughout the Austin area and also helped pay for some of the bills.
"Toll roads are certainly helping pay for transportation needs, but toll roads won't solve those problems alone," Lippincott said. "We've seen a 62 percent inflation rate over the last five years for the materials that we use to build roads, like concrete, steel and asphalt."
Without bond money, TxDOT said there could be another solution to raising funds, that will hit everyone in the pocketbook.
"One of the solutions that the legislature and the Congress in Washington D.C. will have to look at is the possibility of raising the gas tax," Lippincott said. "But what we've seen is that there is an awful lot of reluctance to raising the gas tax with gas at $2.80, $2.90 a gallon."
Sal Costello of TexasTollParty.com is opposed to Proposition 12.
The Texas Toll Party said the current bond will be a future tax increase, and the $5 billion debt will be paid with general revenue instead of dedicated transportation money.
If Proposition 12 is approved, the $5 billion would go to improve roadways throughout Texas.
TxDOT said that any money approved for the Austin area would not go towards new toll roads, but instead will be used for maintenance of roads and bridges.
kxan.com
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