Business Unusual: Regional Public Policy Series

Transportation Funding Equity:
The Local Pie is Strangely Sliced
While Harris County has 73 percent of the regional population, it is scheduled to receive only 48 percent of transportation project funds over the next twenty years. The Gulf Coast Institute has published a paper - the first in a series entitled “Business Unusual: Regional Public Policy” - that examines why Harris County appears to be shortchanged of valued transportation funds.

Harris County’s subsidy to outlying suburban counties could amount to $3 billion, or enough to fund two Katy Freeway expansion projects or more than the entire 41-mile light rail and 8-mile commuter rail system recently proposed by METRO. Both current and forecasted population and employment figures as well as transportation revenue for the region all suggest Harris County should receive closer to three-quarters of project funds, rather than the half it is set to receive.

While local officials including US Representative Tom Delay and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels are fighting for greater transportation equity from the federal and state governments, no one appears to be fighting for more funding equity to the region’s most populous county.

Download the report (1.2M Acrobat pdf file)

.