Over a five-year period, TxDOT data shows a consistent and alarming trend: nearly 7% of all traffic fatalities in Texas occur on county roads each year. That’s a significant share of the state’s roadway deaths occurring on roads that counties struggle to maintain with limited and outdated resources.
One of those outdated resources is the Lateral Road Fund, created to support county roads. But the funding mechanism hasn’t changed since 1954. For more than 70 years, counties have received a flat $7.3 million per year, drawn from the state motor fuels tax.
To put that in perspective: •Texas collects roughly $3.8 billion annually from the state fuels tax.
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