35W Transportation Advocates Push For Highway $
TARRANT COUNTY (CBSDFW.COM) - There's a full court press from North Texas transportation advocates to get the legislature to pump more money into highways.
It was the first topic on the list at Thursday's Interstate-35W Coalition meeting in Fort Worth.
The group is barraging state lawmakers with letters urging passage of a bill that could use oil and gas revenues to come up with $900 million more for road projects.
But former State Transportation Commissioner Bill Meadows said even that won't solve the problem. "The need, at this point, is clearly at least $4 billion on an annual basis and new funding to meet the transportation challenges we have."
One of the proposed bills being considered by Texas legislators would provide a portion of addition highway funding from oil and gas tax revenues. "My understanding of it is it could be as much as an additional billion dollars, which is not four billion," Meadows explained adding, "But an additional billion dollars would certainly help."
For now 35W Coalition members believe that as highway congestion grows, increasing transportation problems could help convince more people of the need for additional tax money for roads. "I think the citizenry does recognize that we need additional funding," Meadows said.
The Coalition says traffic congestion along the I-35W corridor is having a negative impact on the bottom line of businesses and the quality of life for residents.
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