Bill > HB262

This bill modifies various tax laws and bonding provisions, primarily concerning fuel taxes and infrastructure funding. It adjusts the percentage of gasoline taxes distributed to the state aviation fund and the motorboat fuel tax fund, with these percentages decreasing slightly for both after July 1, 2015. The bill also alters the distribution of gasoline taxes to municipalities and counties, with a similar reduction in the percentage allocated after July 1, 2015, while maintaining the requirement that these funds be used for road improvements. A significant change involves the gasoline tax rate itself, which increases from seventeen cents per gallon to nineteen cents per gallon on July 1, 2015, and then becomes subject to an inflation-adjusted rate starting July 1, 2016, based on the chained price index for nonresidential construction. Similarly, the special fuel excise tax rate increases in stages and also becomes subject to inflation adjustments. The bill also modifies the motor vehicle excise tax, increasing it from three percent to four percent on July 1, 2018, and changes the distribution of its proceeds, with a portion shifting from the general fund to the state road fund starting on that date. Furthermore, it introduces new provisions for using severance tax bonds and supplemental severance tax bonds for transportation projects, authorizing significant bond issuances for state highway improvements and local government transportation projects, with specific dollar amounts and timelines outlined. Finally, the bill makes adjustments to the bonding capacity calculations for severance tax bonds and supplemental severance tax bonds, including specific allocations for water projects, tribal infrastructure, and colonias infrastructure projects, and repeals a previous law related to severance tax bonds.