Our shared roads are community wealth. Yet, the transportation system in Texas has been neglected for well over a decade. So the Department of Transportation has been borrowing, to the tune of $18 billion, in order to pay for new roads and maintenance (including toll-roads, which noticeably have been popping up all over Dallas, Austin, Houston, and many other areas).
Toll Roads are not the answer to an underfunded transportation system. They are a temporary bandaid, that can only be tapped once in terms of investment savings, and will lead to someone else owning the means of production (taking value from our community in the long run). Austin is currently being encircled with toll roads. Look it up. It’s happening. There is absolutely no excuse for a private or international company getting a long-term (in one case, 99 years) lease on controlling the roads we depend on to conduct our local private and commercial activities.
What can we do? One solution would be to support the newly introduced Proposition 7. This bill will amend the Texas Constitution to send $2.5 billion from State sales tax revenue to the State Highway Fund, through 2033 (at which time the provision would expire without an extension). This would mean we are again providing essential funding for roads, bridges and other public infrastructure (a critical means of movement and production).
More information on road-building Proposition 7 – My Statesman
“Proposition 7 is the sequel to the constitutional amendment known as Proposition 1 that 80 percent of voters approved last November. By approving Prop. 7, voters would enshrine in the Texas Constitution a mechanism that would pay for roads, bridges and other highway infrastructure through the 2020s and possibly well beyond.”
Election Day is Nov. 3. Early voting starts Monday and continues through Oct. 30.
Proposed constitutional amendments for the upcoming congressional cycle are detailed here:
To go along with a new Grand Parkway and an expanded Interstate 45, officials are now turning their attention to the Hardy Toll Road, which is getting more lanes and maintenance attention it hasn’t received in nearly 30 years to handle growth in northern Harris County…when it is completed in late 2016, the toll road will be converted to all-electronic tolling.
Source: Hardy Toll Road improvements will help accommodate growth – Houston Chronicle