U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison reluctantly voted to extend the federal highway trust fund this week while complaining that Texas could lose $408 million because Congress refuses to adopt a more comprehensive transportation program.
Hutchison said the federal transportation program — in which Texas gets back about 92 cents of every $1 in federal gasoline taxes, making it a "donor" state — needs to be reformed, possibly allowing Texas to opt out.
[SNIP]
In Austin, Perry agreed that federal highway policy needs to be fixed but said Hutchison’s proposal to allow states to opt out is flawed, spokeswoman Allison Castle said.
"The current system isn’t working," she said, adding that Texas actually gets back 84.7 cents per $1 sent to Washington. "We would rather Congress rewrite the federal authorization bill than extend the current broken one."
Thursday, July 30, 2009
How much does Texas get back for every dollar it puts into the transportation system?
A story from last Thursday overlooked until now. There is a lot of friction in the Rick and Kay race about transportation, Texas dollars, federal dollars, and the like.
What is the real rate that Texas gets back? 92 cents or 84.7 cents? Either way Texas is sending more money to other states than we get back. Seems like dirty money laundering somehow.
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my understanding is Texas is one of the top states to get back what it pays to the federal government. Consider everything from military spending, justice department, FDA, etc.. etc.. etc.. If after all the federal spending Texas is getting back .92 cents that is pretty darn good.
ReplyDeleteI have looked into this before and oddly it is the big liberal states that get less back per dollar sent to the federal government.