The dedicated tax money must be allocated to transportation capital projects unless and until the people remove the dedication by voting to change the constitution. Future capital needs total multi-billions of dollars. Both require a stable and dependable source of yearly state funding to provide adequate annual revenue to pay for construction and repairs and also to repay the principal and interest on long-term loans. Because voters do not approve bonds issued by the TTF, they are not backed by the full faith and credit of the state and lack the absolute guarantee that lenders will be repaid. Constitutional dedication of revenue by the voters to the Transportation Trust Fund assures a guaranteed level of funding regardless of changing economic conditions.
Bondholders know there is a stable and dependable source of revenue to repay their loans.
This creates a broad reliable market for the sale of bonds issued by the TTF, and assures a continuing source of money for improvement of transportation infrastructure. The people also know that the constitutionally dedicated revenue can only be used for transportation capital needs. It merely shifts existing revenues to pay for transportation, until the constitution is amended again to remove the dedication. Taxpayers will pay more in the long run because it provides no new revenue and continues to borrow money each year to pay for a large proportion of the capital construction. This will increase debt repayments so that they will consume a large proportion of the newly dedicated revenue within a few years.