1-1 By: Cain S.C.R. No. 91 1-2 (In the Senate - Filed March 13, 1995; March 16, 1995, read 1-3 first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs; May 8, 1995, 1-4 reported favorably by the following vote: Yeas 12, Nays 0; 1-5 May 8, 1995, sent to printer.) 1-6 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 1-7 WHEREAS, The Highway Trust Fund, the Aviation Trust Fund, the 1-8 Inland Waterways Trust Fund, and the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund 1-9 are wholly user-financed and do not contribute one dime to the 1-10 federal deficit; and 1-11 WHEREAS, Currently a $33 billion cash balance ($18.5 billion 1-12 unobligated balance) is languishing in these trust fund accounts as 1-13 an accounting measure designed to mask the actual size of the 1-14 federal deficit and federal spending in other areas; and 1-15 WHEREAS, Every time a motorist puts gas in the tank or a 1-16 traveler buys an airline ticket, user fees are paid into the 1-17 highway and aviation trust funds; congress imposed these fees and 1-18 other taxes with the assurance to the American public that they 1-19 would be spent on infrastructure improvements; and 1-20 WHEREAS, Economists agree that investment in infrastructure 1-21 helps productivity, creates jobs, and is essential for economic 1-22 growth; infrastructure spending is the one area that has widespread 1-23 public support and actually provides a return on taxpayer 1-24 investment; and 1-25 WHEREAS, By combining these trust funds with the federal 1-26 General Fund Budget, these trust fund balances have accrued at the 1-27 expense of billions of dollars in productivity and safety; and 1-28 WHEREAS, H.R. 842, the "Truth in Budgeting Act," will remove 1-29 these trust funds from the General Fund Budget and in doing so will 1-30 restore integrity to the trust funds which are user-financed, 1-31 self-supporting, and directed at specific needs and will also 1-32 restore integrity to the General Fund Budget whose real deficits 1-33 are currently masked by these trust funds; now, therefore, be it 1-34 RESOLVED, That the 74th Legislature of the State of Texas 1-35 hereby urge congress to enact H.R. 842, the "Truth in Budgeting 1-36 Act," to take the transportation trust funds out of the General 1-37 Fund Budget; and, be it further 1-38 RESOLVED, That the Texas Secretary of State forward official 1-39 copies of this resolution to the President of the United States, to 1-40 the speaker of the house of representatives and president of the 1-41 senate of the United States Congress, and to all members of the 1-42 Texas delegation to the congress with the request that it be 1-43 officially entered in the Congressional Record as a memorial to the 1-44 Congress of the United States of America. 1-45 * * * * *