DALLAS - In a compromise between Texas House and Senate versions of a transportation funding measure, leaders have agreed to combine elements of both.
Under the compromise, $2.5 billion of general sales tax revenue would be dedicated to the State Highway Fund as proposed by Rep. Joe Pickett's House Bill 13. The measure will also provide additional revenue from sales taxes on vehicles beginning in 2020, as proposed by Sen. Robert Nichols' Senate Joint Resolution 5.
Nichols, who chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, won early passage of a measure that would have provided additional transportation funding solely from vehicle sales taxes.
Pickett, who chairs the House Transportation Committee, won easy passage of a his bill that would have provided the revenue solely from general sales taxes, on the theory that such funding would be more predictable. Both Nichols' and Pickett's bills would have required voter approval to become a constitutional amendment.
Texans pay a 6.25% state sales tax on automobiles. Currently all of the vehicle sales tax collected, about $4 billion annually, goes into the state's general revenue fund.
Under the compromise, the state would transfer 35% of the growth of that revenue stream beyond $5 billion to the Highway Fund beginning in 2020.
In other legislation, budget writers also managed to boost the Texas Department of Transportation's budget this session by ending about $1.3 billion in so-called diversions, in which gas tax money was going to pay for items other than road construction and maintenance, primarily the Department of Public Safety.
