(The following article by Gordon Dickson was posted on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on October 13.)
FORT WORTH, Texas — North Texans may yet get a chance to vote on higher sales taxes for a regional web of commuter trains.
In cities across the western Metroplex, rail supporters are asking city councils to adopt resolutions in support of regional rail.
“It’s time to turn the heat up,” Tarrant County Commissioner Glen Whitley said.
Here’s how it would work:
Today, the highest sales tax a Texas city can charge is 8.25 cents — 6.25 cents for state government and as much as 2 cents for local needs.
But under the commuter rail proposal, cities where voters agree to pay a transportation tax could lift the sales tax cap. In Tarrant County, the effect would be a half-cent increase, to 8.75 cents.
Supporters say they’re ready to make a serious push for the transportation tax option in the 2007 legislative session, which begins Jan. 9. First, they have to persuade skeptical North Texas state senators and representatives to sponsor the proposal in Austin.
A poll conducted for a legislative committee this summer in parts of North Texas showed that 75 percent of voters would support a sales tax increase to pay for rail.
Nonetheless, it will be a tough sell in Austin. Although some North Texas lawmakers have said they’ll introduce or support a bill to allow a local-option referendum to raise the sales tax, others aren’t sold on the idea.
Fourteen states have higher sales tax caps than Texas, according to the Federation of Tax Administrators. Arkansas has the highest, allowing up to 11.5 cents. Even so, lawmakers say, the sales tax is the primary resource for Texas state government and should be guarded closely.
“A majority of the North Texas delegation must be satisfied that the poll and local leader commitments are strong enough to support a bill of this nature,” state Sen. Kim Brimer, R-Fort Worth, said in an e-mail. Brimer said he intends to file a bill that doesn’t raise the cap but uses other state funds and highway money and allows for a vote on whether to increase gasoline taxes.
Growing support
In cities across North Texas, the sales tax proposal has strong support.
In recent weeks, Burleson, Euless and North Richland Hills have adopted resolutions supporting the tax option. The Tarrant County Mayors’ Council and Tarrant Regional Transportation Coalition have backed it, too.
Arlington, Fort Worth and several other cities are expected to vote on identical resolutions in the coming weeks.
Area leaders have done everything the Legislature has asked to demonstrate that the public wants regional rail, said Nancy Amos, executive vice president of the Fort Worth Transportation Authority. They conducted a scientific poll to show public support and are gathering resolutions from city halls to show political support.
“I think the phone survey results were pretty compelling,” she said. “I think it was a shot in the arm for the political leaders, mayors and council members, and county commissioners to see some validation for what they’ve been saying about the need for transportation.”
What others say
Arlington Mayor Robert Cluck: “We’re big supporters of trying to increase the sales tax capacity for transportation. We’ll be lobbying hard to try to get that sales tax passed. It will be up to the citizens to decide if they want to use that extra capacity for transportation.”
North Richland Hills Mayor Oscar Trevino was told that some lawmakers were privately questioning the poll results. “Support is strong,” he said. “They can’t question the survey; they helped us create it.”
State Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, supports rail in concept but isn’t ready to commit a sales tax to it. “We do not even have a budget estimate yet from the comptroller,” spokesman Dave Nelson said. “So she is not going to make any commitments about the budget at this early point in the process.”
State Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas, will likely introduce a bill allowing an increase in the sales tax cap for transportation. “From everything he’s seen so far, the survey is the icing on the cake,” said Steven Polunsky, director of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security, which Carona leads.
The period for filing bills begins Nov. 13.