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.
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