Governor Perry supports dedicated car sales tax to fund highways

From the Texas Tribune:

Gov. Rick Perry on Friday came out in support of dedicating a portion of future sales tax revenue from car sales to the state’s highway fund, while also leaving the door open to spending more of the Rainy Day Fund on infrastructure projects that he had proposed three months ago.

. . . The remarks put Perry in lockstep with the main proposal put forth by Senate Transportation Chairman Robert Nichols, R-Jacksonville, and House Transportation Chairman Larry Phillips, R-Sherman. Both have filed bills gradually dedicating a portion of future vehicle sales tax revenue to the highway fund.

. . . While Perry and Williams may be moving toward agreement on the Rainy Day Fund, the two don’t see eye to eye on whether the state should dedicate tax revenue from car sales to road projects. In a recent interview with the Tribune, Williams said such a plan would make things difficult for future legislatures as, over time, a bigger portion of state tax revenue gets automatically dedicated to roads. He has said he prefers raising the registration fee to raise more money for transportation.

“We’re going to have a great discussion on that, and I totally respect Tommy’s position,” Perry said. He said he prefers dedicating the vehicle sales tax over other proposals “because it’s not a new tax. It’s not a new fee.”

Perry also reiterated his support for ending diversions of the state gas tax to areas other than transportation, an issue budget writers in the Legislature have said they still hope to address this session.

By combining all his ideas on transportation funding, Perry said, “Texas would be able to capitalize more than $41 billion in transportation projects over the next 20 years. That should be enough to take care of the major improvements we need in this state.”

Transportation has been a politically tricky issue for Perry over the last decade. In 2002, he proposed the Trans-Texas Corridor, a hugely ambitious plan to blanket the state in a network of privately operated toll roads, railroad tracks and utility lines. He later scrapped the plan once public opposition mounted and virtually the entire Legislature disowned it.