An article from the Austin Chronicle comparies projections regarding the gas tax increase amount necessary to cover the projected funding gap for the eight statewide urban area transportation needs - the amount beyond those eight MPO’s constrained long-range regional plans. For the CAMPO area, the shortfall for infrastructure outside of the 2030 Plan and the Phase II toll roads is about $10 billion.


TXDOT estimates a $1.40/gal increase is necessary while the Governor’s Business Council report “Shaping the Competitive Advantage of Texas Metropolitan Regions“ [referred to as the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) report by the Chronicle] figures a much smaller initial increase increase plus indexing would do the trick. The Chronicle notes that the numbers really aren’t as far apart as they have been characterized:

Williamson and TTI’s Dennis Christiansen pointed out, the assumptions in the two reports are different. While both start with the same general level of need – an additional $86 billion in new roads by 2030 – TTI assumes that local jurisdictions will pick up a third of that cost, through toll roads, local-option gas tax, or simply general revenue expenditures backed by property taxes. The two reports also tinker with issues such as the fuel efficiency of fleet vehicles and other such numbers.

The bottom line on the TTI report projects that the gas tax on the $56 billion in identified needs – the initial 10 cents plus increases as needed – would be about 90 cents a gallon by 2030. The highest rate in the country right now is 33 cents.