Bullock Texas State History Museum
Tolls Should Be Last Resort
RECEIVED Wed., June 21, 2006
Dear Editor,
In Kimberly Reeves’ article, "‘Y’ Can't We Be Friends?" [News, June 16], she says, "state highway projects ... had been stymied by diminishing returns on gasoline taxes." Where is her data coming from? According to the Texas government, 2005 was the first time since 1991 that gasoline tax collections dropped, and it dropped only by 0.6% because gas prices went up and people were purchasing less gas (www.window.state.tx.us/taxbud/revest0607-3rd/). So gas tax revenue per year has been steadily increasing since 1991 to 2005.
It is easy to raise money for roads without tolls: Raise the gas tax! When the price of gas is so high, adding another 5 to 10 cents per gallon to the cost is insignificant. Tolls roads are much less efficient revenue generators and are less safe. They are also ugly in my opinion. They should be used as a last resort, not as the primary solution for revenue generation, as the Governor and several people in the legislature would have it.
In Kimberly Reeves’ article, "‘Y’ Can't We Be Friends?" [News, June 16], she says, "state highway projects ... had been stymied by diminishing returns on gasoline taxes." Where is her data coming from? According to the Texas government, 2005 was the first time since 1991 that gasoline tax collections dropped, and it dropped only by 0.6% because gas prices went up and people were purchasing less gas (www.window.state.tx.us/taxbud/revest0607-3rd/). So gas tax revenue per year has been steadily increasing since 1991 to 2005.
It is easy to raise money for roads without tolls: Raise the gas tax! When the price of gas is so high, adding another 5 to 10 cents per gallon to the cost is insignificant. Tolls roads are much less efficient revenue generators and are less safe. They are also ugly in my opinion. They should be used as a last resort, not as the primary solution for revenue generation, as the Governor and several people in the legislature would have it.
Regards,
Curt Karnstedt
Curt Karnstedt
[News editor Michael King responds:
As Curt Karnstedt's own recommendation – raising the gas tax – implies, state gas tax collections have not kept pace with the statewide demand for roads. (Whether that demand is itself to some degree manufactured is a separate question.) That's all that is meant by the phrase "diminishing returns." As an alternative to tolls, raising gas taxes may or may not be financially advisable – but the notion that it would be "easy," in the current Texas political culture, seems at best naive.]
