Funding Expected for TxDOT Road Projects by 2018

"State Comptroller Glenn Hegar on Wednesday offered transportation planners a mixed bag of projections about the highway funding enhancements that voters have approved in recent years," reports Tom Benning.

On the good side of the mixed bag, general sales tax revenue will be sufficient to trigger $2.5 billion a year in road funding by 2018. From the middle of the mixed bag, vehicle sales tax will also send more money to roads in 2020, but less than originally thought. Finally, from the bad side of the mixed bag: "The estimates continue to shrink — thanks to the low price of oil — for the yearly boosts the Texas Department of Transportation receives from the state’s energy production tax revenues."

All of this funding is necessary to meet the $5 billion in annual funding established by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) as necessary "to keep congestion from getting worse and to maintain the state’s roads." Proposition 7, approved by voters in November, enabled these new funding mechanisms.