Transportation Advocacy Group board member Jeff Collins (left) and Alan Clark, Houston-Galveston Area Council director of transportation planning, discuss the future of transportation in Texas. Transportation Advocacy Group board member Jeff Collins (left) and Alan Clark, Houston-Galveston Area Council director of transportation planning, discuss the future of transportation in Texas.[/caption]

Local transportation organizations are gearing up for elections in November with Proposition 7 on the ballot, which could add billions to mobility funding statewide beginning in 2018.


Alan Clark is the director of transportation planning for the Houston-Galveston Area Council and has more than 30 years of transportation experience with the agency. Clark also worked as a transportation planner with the Metropolitan Transit Authority of Harris County and as a traffic-engineering consultant.


Jeff Collins, a board member for the Transportation Advocacy Group, has more than 35 years of engineering experience and is the vice president of the public infrastructure division for LJA Engineering. Collins has worked on several projects in the Greater Houston area, including the direct connectors at Hwy. 290 and the Grand Parkway, and at Hwy. 242 and I-45.



Why should voters approve Prop. 7? What will it mean for transportation funding?


Clark: There’s three Rs I would tell everyone [as to] why we do this: Repair what we’ve got, remove the bottlenecks and let’s reduce accidents. If we could do those three things with this money, then we can agree that some part of your daily experience will be better. I would also say it’s important to remember what this is not. It’s not a new tax. It’s not a new fee. This is taking some of that fantastic growth the state is experiencing and saying we need to invest it back into one of the things that got us here: our highways.


Collins: It was calculated that the state needs an additional $5 billion a year in order to maintain congestion the way it is now. The Legislature first took action with Prop. 1, which was passed two legislative sessions ago and took oil and gas severance tax money and diverted that to transportation. First year that was $1.7 billion, but because of the [drop in] the price of oil and gas, that’s supposed to bring in $1.2 billion. So we’ve already lost $500 million. That was the first step.


The last legislative session, they made a great [effort] to get rid of diversions. That was around $600 million. But they knew they needed to take that next step, and that was Prop. 7.



Is raising the statewide and federal gas tax a feasible option to fund transportation? If so, why aren’t the state Legislature and Congress considering doing this?


Collins: If you look at it from a common sense standpoint, what makes more sense than user pay? If you want to drive a big truck, you’ll pay more. If you want to drive an electric vehicle, you’ll pay less. That makes sense. But I think, politically, that has gotten zero traction on the state level, and it’s being debated nationally. [You] may be aware there’s a presidential election coming up, so you won’t see any discussion on anything that’s going to raise taxes from any party.


Clark: Right now, there’s just no political support for it. Someone told me, “The quickest way to become an unelected official is to vote for a tax increase, especially in Texas.” I’m not sure there’s not truth to that. In some ways, I don’t think that we have as much everyday support for this issue as one would think.



What are some funding sources for the unfunded segments of the Grand Parkway in the southern part of the Greater Houston area?


Clark: In a general way, the Grand Parkway is seen as a system. As a consequence, the state believes the revenue generated on that system should stay dedicated to it until the entire project is completed. Fort Bend County, for example, is already thinking about the next step. They’re going to go south of [Hwy.] 59 toward eventually Hwy. 288 over in Brazoria County. They won’t likely be building the portions outside of Fort Bend County, but until they’ve been able to finish work on the Grand Parkway in Fort Bend County, they’ll continue to use any extra revenue generated to improve it.


I expect what will happen is areas that continue to develop will see those pieces implemented in logical sections. So we might see from I-45 to Alvin, maybe even to Hwy. 6 implemented sooner than say from Hwy. 288 over to [Hwy.] 59. I think those investments will probably be driven by the timing of growth in those areas. It’s not 20 years in the future though. The important thing is completing the environmental work, but [being] able to preserve the right of way needed.



Are there any unfunded projects in Fort Bend County that are considered priority projects? In your opinion, would the passage of Prop. 7 benefit any of these projects?


Clark: Whether it’s Prop. 1 or Prop. 7, the two things are going to work in the same way. Prop. 1 is likely to go up and down; right now, it’s down. I’m not sure which dollars will pay the last bill that comes in the door. But we’re looking to upgrade [Hwy.] 59 all the way down to the county line and maybe down into Wharton County. We’re going to be using Prop. 1 on Hwy. 90.


And even improvements in the Rosenberg area [could be funded], although there are still discussions with Rosenberg on how to do that. Some of that work certainly I think will happen [with] Prop. 7 [funding]. Hwy. 36 coming up on the south side and going then on the bypass along Rosenberg [could be funded]. The goal [is] to widen Hwy. 36, and that is extremely likely to be Prop. 7 and Prop 1 funded.


Then [there are] some of the other major Farm to Market [roads] in Fort Bend County we think we’ll be able to use Prop. 7 money on in the near term. But Fort Bend and Montgomery [counties] are expected to more than double [in population]. They’ll both be counted by [the] 2035-40 time frame, and those funding sources will be important to both for what we can build and improve.


Collins: Fort Bend County does an excellent job of leveraging their money with state money to get projects done. I think you’ll see them use some of their bond money and do the same thing. There’s some fabulous master-planned communities down there that people will definitely keep flocking to.