DALLAS — The first bill to win passage by the Texas Senate would dedicate an estimated $2.5 billion from vehicle sales taxes to highways.
Senate Bill 4 by Sen. Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, was approved on a 28-2 vote March 4. A companion measure, Senate Joint Resolution 4, also won approval.
"Transportation is a core function of government," Nichols told Senate before the vote. "We are still short an adequately funded transportation fund."
The bill creates a proposed constitutional amendment that would require voter approval in November 2016 and comes shortly after Gov. Greg Abbott identified transportation funding as one of five emergency measures submitted to the 2015 session.
One amendment by Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, was approved, providing 20% of the vehicle sales tax revenue toward raises for teachers. The measure would take effect once money is appropriated for teacher pay in another bill.
The sales tax levy on vehicles is 6.25%, which currently generates about $4 billion annually. All of that goes into the state's general revenue fund. Under the new legislation, anything above the first $2.5 billion would go to the state highway fund. However, the limit on highway funding from that source would be $2.5 billion. After that, additional revenues would be split evenly between the general fund and the highway fund.
If enacted, the measure would help fulfill Gov. Greg Abbott's call for $4 billion of additional funding for transportation. Another component of that $4 billion pledge comes from $1.75 billion diverted from the state's rainy day fund under Proposition 1, passed by Texas voters in 2014.
The legislation specifically bans use of the sales tax revenue for toll projects.
The transportation funding is backed by a lobbying organization called "Move Texas Forward."
Scott Haywood, president of Move Texas Forward, called SB 4 "a long-term, reliable funding source for transportation that is vital to our state's economic success."
