The chair of the Texas House of Representatives Transportation Committee told the San Antonio Mobility Coalition on Dec. 8 that increasing transportation funding should be a top priority in the 2023 legislative session.

State Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, addressed a SAMC breakfast held at Embassy Suites-Landmark.

Canales gave coalition members, including local business leaders, a preview of transportation-related issues that state lawmakers will be tackling in the 88th Legislature, which will convene Jan. 10.

Canales said Texas has an overall robust transportation system, but more money is needed to maintain, improve and expand that system to support a statewide population, which demographers project going from an estimated 30 million to 40 million in 2040.

“Transportation is nonpartisan. We have to find solutions,” Canales said.

Canales urged the Legislature to extend propositions 1 and 7, two voter-approved mechanisms that redirect some revenues from specific nonproperty taxes toward public road projects, such as the expansion efforts on Loop 1604 and US 281 North in Bexar County.

The Texas Department of Transportation said it has collected more than $26 billion since propositions 1 and 7 launched in 2014 and 2017, respectively. Propositions 1 and 7 are set to expire in 2034 and 2032, TxDOT said.

“The reality is we’d be in a really dark place without propositions 1 and 7,” Canales said.

Canales said slightly raising the state’s gasoline tax of $0.20 a gallon is an option, even if it is politically unpopular.

“It’s not just possible; it’s probable, and the probability increases when communities come together to tell the Legislature to raise the tax,” he said.

Canales said the Legislature should explore other issues, such as funding future transportation system studies, improving sea ports and small to medium airports, and reducing vehicular traffic fatalities.

Additionally, Canales said the Legislature should consider ensuring drivers of alternative-fuel vehicles and certain commercial vehicle motorists pay their fair share of the public roadways they use.

“We have a funding problem—not just a lack of it, but a portion of it,” he said.