"The real choice remains in the hands of state officials and the Legislature."

Are Texans friendlier to taxes when they're called tolls?

Ben Wear
Austin American-Statesman
Copyright 2005

Maybe, just maybe, Rick Perry and Ric Williamson aren't crazy after all.

This heavily qualified endorsement of the governor and his transportation chevalier was inspired by a visit Williamson made to the Statesman editorial board last week.

Williamson, chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission, didn't say much that he and other toll road supporters haven't said many times before. Well, he did call tolls a tax, a startling characterization coming from him. But he qualified that by distinguishing a user tax from a general tax such as the gasoline tax.

Still, something clicked. I've heard Williamson and others say many times that Texans are against raising the gasoline tax from 20 cents a gallon, the rate since 1991. Those 14 years of inflation have lowered its effective value to 14 cents, putting the Texas Department of Transportation in a cash crunch. Thus, tolls.

I always wondered about the foundation for that tax claim and what made them think that somehow we had a friendlier attitude toward tolls. It's an old political saw, of course, to ascribe to the people policy positions that are in actuality your own.

But then I made a leap.

What if there were an actual referendum putting before Texans the choice: a 20-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase (probably the minimum needed to catch up and keep up with highway needs) or the current aggressive toll road policy, including the Trans-Texas Corridor of intrastate turnpikes and plans to expand existing city arteries and toll them, as with the "Phase II" plan in Austin.

This referendum thing won't happen. But if it did, how would I vote, really?

A 20-cent-a-gallon increase would cost almost $4 extra on every fill-up, something above $150 a year. On the other side, someone who lives and works where I do would rarely encounter any of the five roads in the Phase II plan.

And each of them — U.S. 290 east of Ed Bluestein Boulevard (U.S. 183), Bluestein from Interstate 35 to the airport, Texas 71 from the airport to I-35, the new Texas 45 Southwest and U.S. 290/Texas 71 in Oak Hill — would have free frontage roads. So to get to the airport, I could take Seventh or Riverside and then pay 15 cents to 20 cents a mile for a mile or so. Once a month, maybe.

And when I found myself on those other roads, I could chose to take the access road for a couple of miles and pay nothing. Versus an extra $3 to $4 every time I get gas. As for the Trans-Texas Corridor, maybe those folks who can afford to pay $40 to drive faster to Dallas will leave me more room on I-35.

Hmmm . . . Self-interest is a powerful thing. And for every person whose main commute route involves one of these proposed toll roads, I bet there's at least five of me.

There's some evidence that a local gas tax of 5 cents or less might be enough to build the Phase II roads without tolls. But that's not allowed under state law, and it is unlikely to happen.

The real choice remains in the hands of state officials and the Legislature.

Could it be that they really are expressing the public will?

Getting There appears Mondays. For questions, tips or story ideas, contact Getting There at 445-3698 or bwear@statesman.com.

Austin American-Statesman: www.statesman.com