Texas Poll Backs Higher Highway Spending, But Not Higher Fuels Taxes

DALLAS -- Most Texans want to increase state spending on transportation infrastructure but very few of them want to raise state and federal gasoline taxes or even know how much they pay in those taxes, according to a poll from Texas A&M Transportation Institute.

The survey, conducted in May but not released until Thursday, found that 64% of the respondents wanted more transportation infrastructure spending by state and local governments, but only a small minority supported an increase in the state gasoline tax or vehicle registration fees.

"Respondents are more comfortable with transportation funding mechanisms that do not require any additional spending on their part," survey researchers said.

Only 1% of those polled knew that a gallon of gasoline sold in Texas was taxed at 20 cents by the state government. Less than half knew that neither the state gasoline tax nor the federal tax of 18.4 cents per gallon is indexed to inflation.

Ginger Goodin, director of TTI's Transportation Policy Research Center, said the poll was conducted in part to help inform transportation policy discussions as the Texas Legislature prepares to convene in January for its 140-day biannual session.

The lack of public knowledge about transportation funding indicated by the poll was not a surprise, she said.

"From dozens of focus groups over several years, we have seen that Texans, in general, have very little understanding of how we pay for the highways we use," Goodwin said. "What we know now that we didn't know before is that that lack of understanding is widespread, and it's common among all demographic groups."

The favored alternative to increased taxes for transportation was dedicating the existing state sales tax on cars and trucks to the highway fund.

"There is more comfort with dedicating an existing revenue stream, such as the vehicle sales tax, to transportation than with directly increasing costs to the transportation user with mechanisms such as higher vehicle registration fees or state fuel taxes," said TTI researchers Chris Simek and Tina Geiselbrecht.

The most unpopular option was to raise the current $65 annual vehicle registration fee to $115 a year, followed closely by a proposal to raise the state gasoline tax by 10 cents a gallon. Increasing the gasoline tax by five cents or the vehicle fee to $75 a year was slightly more popular, but not by much.

Toll roads were the least popular solution for dealing with Texas' transportation issues, the survey found, with synchronized traffic lights and quicker clearance of road accidents the most popular fixes.

"The lack of support [for toll roads] held true in both metropolitan areas and rural areas, as well as areas with and without toll roads," researchers said.

Growing congestion on Texas highways is caused by the state's strong economy and growing population, most respondents said. Only about a third of them said the problem is a result of deteriorating infrastructure.

Voters will decide in November on a constitutional amendment that would dedicate up to $1.7 billion a year of state crude oil and natural gas production taxes to Texas highways. The amendment specifically prohibits spending the energy tax revenue on toll roads.

Texas Department of Transportation officials say the state needs an additional $5 billion a year to maintain the current highway system at an acceptable level.

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