By: Cain S.C.R. No. 91 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1-1 WHEREAS, The Highway Trust Fund, the Aviation Trust Fund, the 1-2 Inland Waterways Trust Fund, and the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund 1-3 are wholly user-financed and do not contribute one dime to the 1-4 federal deficit; and 1-5 WHEREAS, Currently a $33 billion cash balance ($18.5 1-6 unobligated balance) is languishing in these trust fund accounts as 1-7 an accounting measure designed to mask the actual size of the 1-8 federal deficit and federal spending in other areas; and 1-9 WHEREAS, Every time a motorist puts gas in the tank or a 1-10 traveler buys an airline ticket, user fees are paid into the 1-11 highway and aviation trust funds; congress imposed these fees and 1-12 other taxes with the assurance to the American public that they 1-13 would be spent on infrastructure improvements; and 1-14 WHEREAS, Economists agree that investment in infrastructure 1-15 helps productivity, creates jobs, and is essential for economic 1-16 growth; infrastructure spending is the one area that has widespread 1-17 public support and actually provides a return on taxpayer 1-18 investment; and 1-19 WHEREAS, By combining these trust funds with the federal 1-20 General Fund Budget, these trust fund balances have accrued at the 1-21 expense of billions of dollars in productivity and safety; and 1-22 WHEREAS, H.R. 842, the "Truth in Budgeting Act," will remove 1-23 these trust funds from the General Fund Budget and in doing so will 2-1 restore integrity to the trust funds which are user-financed, 2-2 self-supporting, and directed at specific needs and will also 2-3 restore integrity to the General Fund Budget whose real deficits 2-4 are currently masked by these trust funds; now, therefore, be it 2-5 RESOLVED, That the 74th Legislature of the State of Texas 2-6 hereby urge congress to enact H.R. 842, the "Truth in Budgeting 2-7 Act," to take the transportation trust funds out of the General 2-8 Fund Budget; and, be it further 2-9 RESOLVED, That the Texas Secretary of State forward official 2-10 copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, to 2-11 the speaker of the house of representatives and president of the 2-12 senate of the United States Congress, and to all members of the 2-13 Texas delegation to the congress with the request that it be 2-14 officially entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the 2-15 Congress of the United States of America.