By paulburka/October 3, 2009

...Thanks to TxDOT chair Deirdre Delisi for this report:
The 92.5% guarantee [Texas] has under the current surface transportation bill only applies to the highway funding formula, which doesn’t equate to 100% of federal gas tax dollars Texas sends to DC. Here’s how the math breaks down. For ever $1 we send, 85% goes to highways and 15% goes to transit. Of the 85% that goes to highways, only 85% goes towards the funding formula; the other 15% goes to discretionary spending. So the 92.5% only applies to 85% of 85% of 100%, which roughly equals 67-68 cents. It all means very little when, in the end, DC passes a bill it 1) can’t fund and 2) takes the funding it does have for other purposes, resulting in almost $2 billion in recissions for Texas. All together, adding up the formula dollars, discretionary spending and transit, Texas gets about 78 cents back on the dollar, a far cry from 92 cents on the dollar.

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