DALLAS -- Transportation proposals were popular with voters during Tuesday's election, with few defeats amid several big-ticket initiatives that passed by wide margins in Texas, California, Maryland, and Wisconsin.
On the national scene, a change in control of the Senate will put Republicans at the head of key transportation committees as Congress faces a May 31 deadline for the current extension of the Highway Trust Fund.
The state and local election results indicate that voters back transportation proposals with a purpose, said David Goldberg, communications director for advocacy group Transportation For America.
"The overall mood seems to be that voters will be supportive of investing in infrastructure when there seems to be a good plan," Goldberg said. "They want to know the money is available and they want to see guarantees."
Congressional Republicans appear to be divided about how to proceed on transportation funding, Goldberg said.
"The Republican caucus is split on the correct level of federal funding for transportation and on the federal role in transportation in general," he said.
Changes in key Senate committee leadership include Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., who is expected to become chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee in place of Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the probable successor to Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., as chairman of the Finance Committee.
Hatch and Inhofe have been consistent in their opposition to an increase in the federal gasoline tax to bolster the struggling Highway Trust Fund, but Inhofe said this summer that other options will be considered.
"Coming up between now and May, you'll see a new funding mechanism that is going to change how we are funding our roads and highways," he said in August. "However it's more of a user fee than a tax increase."
An overwhelming 80% of Texas voters approved a constitutional amendment that could shift up to $1.7 billion a year of oil and gas production tax revenues to state road projects, but 57% of voters in Austin rejected the city's request for $1 billion of general obligation bonds to fund a $600 million light rail system and $400 million of street and bridge upgrades.
Passage of the revenue shift amendment won't solve Texas's $5 billion a year highway funding gap but it should show state lawmakers that voters favor additional infrastructure spending, said Scott Haywood of Move Texas Forward, which lobbied for the proposal.
"This is a huge win for Texas," Haywood said. "I think it sends a message to the legislature that this is something that Texans really care about and now we have to keep the effort going."
San Francisco voters approved a $500 million road bond package by the required two-thirds majority, with 71% in favor and 29% opposed. The GO bonds, which will not require a tax increase, are part of the city's 10-year capital plan.
Huge majorities of Wisconsin and Maryland voters approved proposals designed to protect state transportation dollars from being shifted to pay for other needs.
The Wisconsin referendum amends the state constitution to stipulate that money generated from transportation-related fees and taxes be devoted solely to roads, harbors, and airports. The proposal, which was approved by 80% of voters, also establishes the Wisconsin Department of Transportation as a constitutionally authorized agency.
More than 80% of Maryland voters agreed to the adoption of a constitutional amendment that would prohibit transfers from the state's $4.6 billion transportation trust fund without a fiscal emergency declaration from the governor and approval by a 60% super-majority in the general assembly.
Meanwhile, a Massachusetts law adopted in 2013 that indexed the state's gasoline tax to inflation was repealed by 53% of voters. Proponents of the initiative contended that the annual adjustment was a surreptitious way to raise the state's gasoline tax of 24.5 cent per gallon.
