The 84th legislative session ended on June 1, 2015. See the bills that have become law.

Ensuring all gas tax revenue goes to the highway fund

Curated by Aman Batheja

With the Texas Department of Transportation facing a multibillion-dollar shortfall, lawmakers this session took aim at so-called gas tax diversions.

Currently, not all of the 20-cent state gas tax that Texans pay goes to road work. But budget writers this session managed to end about $1.3 billion of those diversions, in which gas tax money was going to pay for other items, mainly the Department of Public Safety.

Under the Texas Constitution, a quarter of state gas tax revenue still goes to education. Of the revenue that does make it into the state highway fund, nearly all of it is used by TxDOT to fund road work or pay off debt.

Updated: May 31, 2015

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The Texas Legislative Guide was designed and developed by Becca Aaronson, Emily Albracht, Daniel Craigmile, Annie Daniel, Ben Hasson and Ryan Murphy for The Texas Tribune. The Tribune is a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that promotes civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government and other matters of statewide concern.