Texas Transit Association

Local efforts to build toll lanes and increase the sales tax to fund roads and mass transit won’t be enough to keep up with growing traffic congestion, officials in San Antonio have told Transportation Commissioners.

Local, state funding needed to fund road (and transit) needs
By Patrick Driscoll
Express-News Staff Writer 01/29/2004

Political and business leaders told the Texas Transportation Commission, which met today in San Antonio, about plans to inject more local money into transportation projects. But the state also will need to swing more funds this way, they added.

“They either need to reprioritize the present funding or raise more money,” said Sam Dawson, chairman of the San Antonio Mobility Coalition.

The San Antonio area needs an additional $6.6 billion through 2030 — almost four times more than planned — to keep pace with traffic, says to the Texas Department of Transportation. Without it, commute times are expected to double.

“That’s an enormous amount of money,” said Hope Andrade of San Antonio, who sat in on her first meeting as a commissioner. “So we’re going to have to start looking at every opportunity we have to raise money.”

The Transportation Commission is increasingly looking to local communities to come up with more money for projects, and toll roads are considered the primary solution.

“This is the decision we face — no road or toll road,” said Ric Williamson, chairman of the commission.

Tolls are used to repay bonds that finance roads, but they only work when there’s enough frustrated drivers willing to pay. Because San Antonio’s traffic congestion isn’t bad enough yet, local officials don’t believe tolls will do it alone.

In other words, state tax dollars will be needed to help build any toll roads here, Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff told commissioners.

“It’s very critical,” he said.

Commissioners said there would be help to build toll lanes in San Antonio, though specific amounts weren’t given. “I don’t want to be flip but I want to be honest with you, whatever it takes to solve problems,” Williamson said.

“We’re going to be there. We’re going to be good partners.”

The county recently formed a transportation authority that will study whether new lanes on North Side highways such as Loop 1604, U.S. 281 and Interstate 35 could be tolled. The initial network is about 50 miles.

The Transportation Commission was also told about plans to ask voters in November to increase the sales tax by a quarter-cent per dollar, which would raise $34 million a year. Half would be used for roads and highways and the rest would go to VIA Metropolitan Transit.

That’s another great idea, commissioners said.

“This is extremely important to the community as a whole,” commissioner John Johnson said. “I hope it passes. It needs to pass.”

Another initiative is to persuade the Legislature to let metropolitan areas raise the gas tax at local levels. Lawmakers in recent sessions have refused to raise the tax statewide and transportation commissioners have supported that stance.