Legislators and transportation planners are faced with a problem that will only get worse: revenues from the gas tax are decreasing as cars are getting better gas mileage. This means that the state and federal government are getting less money to fix highways and fund infrastructure needs.

"One way to address the problem would be to allow the gas tax to gradually go up as vehicle fuel efficiency improves so that it continues to bring in the same amount of revenue," the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. Other options include a vehicle-miles traveled tax, increasing vehicle registration fees, enacting a local option tax or vehicle sales tax, and reauthorizing the use of public-private partnerships.

The dire need for additional transportation funding to address Texas' serious congestion problems and infrastructure needs was echoed throughout the House & Senate joint transportation hearing on Feb. 1. Business leaders and transportation officials expressed their concerns to the Legislature, urging lawmakers to bring all possible options to the table so that the state can have the money it needs to build and maintain necessary projects.

Public education and involvement is vital  in solving the funding crisis. "We have to get more grassroots involvement from the people stuck on Interstate 635, Loop 820, you name it," North Richland Hills Mayor Oscar Trevino said.

To read more on this issue, see the FWST article, "Cars with better mileage will dry up gas tax revenue, planners fear"

        

Panels of transportation experts, local elected officials and business leaders expressed a dire need for additional transportation funding to address the congestion problems throughout the state at Monday's joint hearing of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security and the House Committee on Transportation. Participants of the hearing agreed on the vital need for the Legislature to identify solutions to the state's transportation funding challenges during the upcoming legislative session.

Panel members discussed possible funding mechanisms for the Legislature to consider in the next session including ending diversions from the gas tax, increasing and indexing the gas tax, increasing vehicle registration fees, enacting a local option tax or vehicle sales tax, and reauthorizing the use of public-private partnerships.

Texas Transportation Commission chairwoman Deirdre Delisi told the Legislature that the state needs long-term stability to fund future transportation projects. Delisi pointed out that the state is facing serious financial challenges in regard to transportation through declining revenues and declining purchasing power of gas tax funds, unreliability of federal aid, increasing efficiency of vehicles and increasing costs of construction. She continued that the state needs every tool in the toolbox available to get projects underway.

Senate committee chair John Carona observed that privately financed toll roads are more expensive to build and maintain than publicly financed roads, but Delisi argued that the private sector has greater capacity to secure financing for these projects. She said the state does not currently have the budget or borrowing capacity to finance important transportation projects, so it must turn to the private sector to provide the financial support necessary for needed projects.

Delisi sited SH 130 as an example of a project that would otherwise not have been built without the use of a public-private partnership. For more on how public-private partnerships have made projects happen throughout Texas, watch the TSRT video entitled “Road-Building Innovations: The Dallas-Fort Worth and Texas Experience” . The video features transportation projects that are underway after years of planning and hopeful thinking, and testimonials from officials directly involved in the projects demonstrating how they can serve as a model for the rest of the state and the nation to build and maintain transportation infrastructure.

"You're going to need every tool you have," Michael Morris, Director of Transportation for the North Central Texas Council of Governments, told the Legislature. "You are in so much trouble, you don't have the right to pick and choose which funding tools to use," he continued.

Bill Hammond of the Texas Association of Business urged the Legislature to gradually eliminate diversions and to allow the state to once again use public-private partnerships to build new infrastructure.

Peggy Venable of Americans for Prosperity also highlighted the need to end diversions as a funding mechanism. "We recognize that significant transportation dollars are siphoned off for other purposes," she said. "If legislators and local government officials agree that transportation is a priority, we should end those diversions – all of the diversions – before we consider any additional taxing authority."

Considering its current financial situation, the state will run out of money for new transportation projects by 2012 without a new funding method. This would mean no new roads or projects would be built, and the state would only be able to maintain current infrastructure. The 2030 committee reported its transportation needs summary to the Legislature, saying that the state needs to invest at least $315 billion through 2030 to maintain roadways, combat urban traffic congestion, and increase mobility and safety.

Click Here to view a video of the hearing.

To read more about the hearing, read the articles below:
    Fort Worth Star-Telegram: North Texans revive push for local-option transportation funding bill
    San Antonio Express-News: Legislators debate road funding
    El Paso Times: State could look at fuel tax hike

        

The Texas Transportation Commission approved an order at a Jan. 28 meeting to support the North Texas Tollway Authority in its efforts to construct State Highway 161 in Dallas County and Southwest Parkway in Tarrant and Johnson counties.

 

The commission agreed to back NTTA with a line of credit that would be available if help is needed to make payments on the bonds that will be issued to pay for the new projects. The order was necessary to move the issue forward because NTTA would not be able to afford to build these roads without help from the state.

 

Texas Transportation Commissioner William Meadows reminded the commission and the state of the dire need for these two projects. “If we don’t provide this transportation infrastructure, we as a state will fail...” he said.

 

Meadows stated he remains optimistic and believes that those involved in the projects are extremely focused on getting them delivered. “It really is an encouraging, hopeful and very productive environment that these people have created,” he said.

 

Revenues from the projects are expected to sufficiently pay off the debt, but the backing from the state's highway system would provide a protection for lenders and reduce NTTA's financing costs. The line of credit from the state will likely give NTTA a much higher credit rating on the bond market, raising about $400 million more for the project through bond sales than otherwise possible.

 

Commission Chair Deirdre Delisi expressed the need for as many funding options as possible to allow TxDOT to deliver infrastructure projects across the state.

 

“There is only so much capacity we have for these projects…this elevates the need to make sure all the tools that have been given to us over the years remain with us, and the ones suspended or taken away are returned so that we can be more creative, more innovative…” Delisi said following the funding discussion of SH 161 and Southwest Parkway.

 

The commission will vote Feb. 25 on a final agreement to extend the line of credit for these two projects.

 

For more information, click to read the articles below:
Dallas Morning News: NTTA moves closer to funding for State Highway 161, Southwest Parkway
Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Southwest Parkway and Texas 161 toll road projects clear big hurdle

        

NorthGate Constructors is scheduled to begin construction on the $1.02 billion DFW Connector in mid-February.  The corridor runs along state highways 121 and 114 north of the DFW Airport.  The eight-mile initial phase of the project should be completed by 2014 and is expected to double roadway capacity.  A comprehensive development agreement with TxDOT allows NorthGate to design and construct the Connector project simultaneously to likely shorten the total construction time.  The project will improve mobility through expanded free lanes, continuous frontage roads and toll managed lanes.  The DFW Connector is publicly funded with $667 million from the public gas tax and $250 million from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds.  

CLICK HERE to read the Fort Worth Business Press article, "DFW Connector construction set to begin next month."

For more information on the DFW Connector Project, CLICK HERE.

        

Last month, the Texas Transportation Commission selected a committee to review a mileage tax system as an alternative infrastructure funding source.  Though there are mixed opinions surrounding the issue, law makers and transportation leaders believe something needs to be done about our state's transportation funding issues.

A fuel tax is the main funding method currently used for road improvements, but revenue has declined due to more fuel efficient vehicles. All the while, construction costs continue to rise and the need for additional and improved infrastructure is increasing.

"Obviously the current system we're using now is probably insufficient given changes that are occurring," State Senator Robert Duncan said.

Duncan suggests toll roads could also be a solution in congested areas of the state. "...While they're unpopular when you propose them, once they're completed, people are really, I think, satisfied with the ease in congestion and the option that they provide," he said.

CLICK HERE to read the full article, "State leaders examine mileage tax option."

        

The Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security will convene in a joint hearing with the House Transportation Committee on Transportation on Monday, February 1, 2010 at 8:00 a.m. in the Capitol Extension Auditorium (E1.004).

The purpose of the hearing is to receive quarterly updates and to open a dialogue on the status of transportation infrastructure, the sufficiency of current funding, and the merits of alternative approaches to funding. The hearing will include panels on Transportation Impacts, Transportation Needs and Outlook, Debt Financing, and other invited testimony. 

Oral or written public testimony is welcome at the hearing. Oral remarks should be limited to three minutes. For written testimony, submit 15 copies with your name on each copy to the Committee staff at the hearing. To receive email alerts for upcoming committee hearing notices, CLICK HERE.

        

TSRT released a video today demonstrating how public-private partnerships and other innovations are working to meet the transportation funding needs in Texas. CLICK HERE to view the video. 

 
Video Showcases State's Leadership in Creative Transportation Financing

Public-private partnerships are working for Texans

 

AUSTIN, TX, January 8, 2010  - On the day devoted to discussing the state’s dire funding needs at the 5^th Annual Texas Transportation Forum, Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation (TSRT) released an educational video on how public-private partnerships and other innovations are working to meet Texas’ transportation needs.

 

The video titled “Road-Building Innovations: The Dallas-Fort Worth and Texas Experience” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qdLTL804lA) features transportation projects in the Dallas-Fort Worth area that are underway after years of planning and hopeful thinking.  Testimonials from officials directly involved in bringing the projects to fruition demonstrate how these projects can serve as a model for the rest of the state and the nation to build and maintain transportation infrastructure.

 

“No other metropolitan area in the nation is having more success getting major projects off the ground than Dallas-Fort Worth,” said Bill Noble, executive director of TSRT.  “Public-private partnerships have made these vital, gridlock-busting projects a reality.”

 

Projects highlighted in the video include the North Tarrant Express (NTE), the LBJ Express and the DFW Connector in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and the State Highway 130 project south of Austin to Seguin. 

 

Because traditional transportation funding methods are not meeting our state’s current or future transportation needs, the video features the use of public-private partnerships as a successful infrastructure funding option.  Public-private partnerships allow local and state leaders to leverage tax dollars on projects that foster job creation, add new capacity, and minimize congestion by giving road users additional transportation choices.

 

Unfortunately, at a time when these projects are moving forward and demonstrating Texas’ national leadership in this area, the Texas Legislature did not reauthorize the use of the public-private partnership tool for future projects during the last Regular and Special Legislative Sessions. 

 

“We must urge our lawmakers to restore this vital funding tool.  There is growing consensus among transportation leaders and everyday Texans that public-private partnerships must be part of the solutions available,” said Noble.

 

The Dallas-Fort Worth projects are a coordinated effort by the North Central Texas Council of Governments, the Regional Transportation Council, local and state elected officials, and the Texas Department of Transportation in collaboration with the private sector. 

 

The video features officials and experts involved in solving Texas’ transportation challenges including:

 

-         Bill Hammond, President, Texas Association of Business

-         Hon. Oscar Trevino, Jr., P.E., Mayor, North Richland Hills

-         Hon. Linda Koop, Dallas City Council Member

-         Hon. B. Glen Whitley, Tarrant County Judge
Michael Morris, P.E., Transportation Director, NCTCOG

-         Hon. Jungus Jordan, Fort Worth City Council Member

-         Dr. C. Michael Walton, Professor of Transportation Engineering, UT Austin

-         Robert Poole, Transportation Policy Director, Reason Foundation

-         Hon. Ron Natinsky, Dallas City Council Member

-         Hon. Betty Ann Matthies, Mayor, Sequin

-         Steve Taylor, North Dallas Chamber of Commerce

-         Russell Laughlin, Senior V.P., Hillwood Development

 

        

The Waco Tribune recently interviewed TxDOT deputy executive director Steven Simmons.  The Q&A reflects Simmons' thoughtful insight about the misconceptions of toll roads, problems with the gas tax, alternative funding sources, political involvement in transportation issues, and the lessons learned from the former Trans-Texas Corridor project.

CLICK HERE to read the full article.

        

NTE Mobility Partners announced Thursday that it achieved financial close for the construction and operation of segments of the North Tarrant Express (NTE) ahead of schedule. The 13-mile project involves a serious of improvements primarily along Interstate 820 and portions of State Highway 121/183. Construction on the project is expected to begin in late 2010 with proposed completion in 2015.

 

The NTE project will improve highway efficiency by improving existing lanes and reconstructing interchanges as well as creating managed toll lanes, offering drivers the choice to bypass congestion on general purpose lanes. 
 

The $2 billion investment by NTE Mobility Partners will be financed through a combination of public and private funds including $427 million in private equity, $400 million in unwrapped private activity bonds, $573 million from TxDOT funds, and a $650 million TIFIA loan from the U.S. government. The NTE project is the “first U.S. pension fund to invest directly in the construction and maintenance of a major infrastructure project,” according to Richard Tettamant, Administrator for the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System.

 

The NTE Mobility Partners team, the firm in charge of the project, is led by Cintra US and also includes Meridiam Infrastructure, the Dallas Police and Fire Pension System, and W.W. Webber, LLC.

 

“The combination of public and private financing for critical transportation infrastructure allows projects like NTE to be constructed decades earlier than they would have otherwise,” said Joe Aiello, senior investment director for Meridiam Infrastructure, in a NTEMP/Cintra US press release. “While other transportation and critical infrastructure projects in the U.S. remain in the planning stages, NTE is moving ahead with plans to provide long-overdue traffic relief in a region that continues to experience tremendous growth.”

 

This project illustrates the advantages of public-private partnerships, which allow governments to significantly leverage limited tax dollars to the greatest benefit of the local citizens – in this case, the partnership allows the state to create $2 billion in roadway benefits, nearly four times the state's actual investment. Other benefits include new job creation, greater roadway choices for drivers and better traffic flow relieving carbon footprint.

 

The 52-year concession agreement with the state of Texas allows the state to retain ownership of the roadway. Cintra will maintain the road for the duration of the contract in return for the right to collect the toll revenues. At the end of the term, TxDOT will assume responsibility for the operation and maintenance of the roadway.

 

For more information on the NTE project, click the links below:

• Dallas Morning News: “Tarrant toll road project gets a major boost”
• Fort Worth Business Press: “North Tarrant Express project moving forward”
  
  

        

Plans to begin construction that will widen I-35 from Dallas to Denton are being made after almost a decade of discussion about the project. Major steps like planning environmental hearings, setting timetables for buying property and public hearings, and approval of a design for the project are being taken to begin construction in 2012. Officials say this project is critical to relieving gridlock in the area since about 350,000 cars are expected to use the highway by 2025. This $4.3 billion construction project will cover 28 miles and will be separated into three sections. While some of the plans to pay for the project have been made, more plans will be determined over time. The 12-mile stretch in Lewisville will cost $2.25 billion and will be paid partially through the use of State Highway 121 toll revenue and Denton County bond money that has been set aside for the project. Possibilities for the remaining $1 billion cost for this section include pass-through financing and a comprehensive development agreement.

To read the full article in Dallas Morning News CLICK HERE.