The popularity of the program and the perceived need to connect the vast, isolated central and western areas of the state prompted the passing of the Colson-Briscoe Act in 1949, sponsored by State Senator E. Neveille Colson and State Representative Dolph Briscoe. This legislation appropriated funding for the creation of an extensive system of secondary roads to provide access to the rural areas of the state and to allow farmers and ranchers to bring their goods to market, reserving a flat $15 million per year ($ million today) plus 1 cent per gallon of gasoline sold in the state for local highway construction. In 1962, the Texas legislature inflation adjusted this amount to $23 million annually ($ million today), through federal fund matching, and expanded the farm-to-market system from . The system now accounts for over half of the mileage in the Texas Department of Transportation system.