In response to various articles on toll projects in Austin:TX

 

 

The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is an agency in which decisions by the few rule the many.

The State agency let's foreign companies purchase 50-year contracts to build and maintain toll roadways and Texans now have a lost, runaway agency.

Toll roads are a last resort, not a first option.  They encourage long-term debt.  And usually property values decline in the adjacent areas.

A case in point why toll roads are not the solution to every problem:  Hwy 130 was built without study or awareness of who would use it.  The 85 mph speed  was the carrot dangling above our heads, but it didn't work.  Very few cars and trucks are using the tollway and it is hurting the state.  Taxpayers are reeling from that poor decision and are losing millions of tax dollars.

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Currently, TxDOT is building 2 toll lanes on MoPac… another poor idea.  Instead of widening the entire roadway to facilitate more cars and thereby easing traffic congestion, TxDOT's 2-lane dysfunctional approach adds significant long-term costs and won’t relieve traffic.

TxDOT and toll road enthusiasts are stuck in a desert of decision-making.  They seem to see only quick dollars, but it’s merely a mirage.  We need intelligent decisions to fix traffic congestion, not toll roads!

Austin, Texas pushing toll roads again...whether we need them or not

In response to public statements by Precinct 3 Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty regarding his gung-ho push for toll roads whenever possible because he tells us that toll roads are the only way to get roads we need built quickly.  What Daugherty does NOT tell us is that building toll roads makes those roads cost much more than roads built with other tax dollars from gasoline and other allotted taxes that were approved and passed for TxDOT’s use to build and maintain our roadways.

Commissioner Daugherty also does NOT tell us that up to 80 percent of the tolls collected go immediately off the top to the companies that maintain the toll collection.  Now that’s a lot of money that adds years to the cost of paying for that roadway.

 

In addition, toll roads make certain that the public will pay toll taxes [after all, what are tolls if not new taxes] for 50 years because that’s what the contracts usually are with toll road companies.  What we look at with each new toll road is long-term debt and Daugherty never acknowledges how much more toll roads cost all of us in the long term.  He wants roads built quickly, as we all do, but at what cost with tolls?

 

We need to build toll roads only as a last resort and NOT the first knee-jerk reaction that Daugherty and other pro-toll road enthusiasts want.  Toll roads are NOT in the communities best interests.  Toll roads are in the best interests of the toll road companies who spend huge amounts of campaign contributions to make sure they continue to buy lucrative contract from our state and representatives.

 

We need to stop building toll roads as though they are the best invention since sliced bread.  We need to get smarter about how we spend our tax dollars and maybe we need to put a lid on officials like Daugherty who just want to spend our tax dollar without looking at the long term implications and huge costs.

TxDOT's "pass-through" Road Projects and Lack of Oversight

The evolution of the Texas Department of Transportation stinks like month-old fish.  The state agency does whatever it wants, with little direct oversight.  It continues to milk millions of tax dollars for its elite management's special interests, which also happen to be Gov. Rick Perry's special interests.

TxDOT prefers what it calls "creative methods" of building roadways, a.k.a., toll roads and/or "managed care lanes" that also are toll roads.  Toll roads create long-term debt and are NOT cost-effective methods of building and maintaining our roads.

The "pass-through" projects are the new way TxDOT suckers various communities and districts into putting their hard-earned tax dollars down for new roads and road improvements with the agency's ridiculous promise to repay the communities sometime "down the toll road" --- only where will TxDOT get the money to repay the communities?  Who knows, since TxDOT continues to whine that it has no money.

It may be a good idea to shut down TxDOT completely and have private companies plan and build our roadways.

TxDOT already contracts out a large part of its work, but does not maintain a good oversight on the work done.  That's why some areas need work done twice using twice the tax dollars to do the job correctly once.

 No one is held accountable... ever!

It's time Texans know exactly where their tax dollars are going and the agency needs much better oversight than it currently gets.

Furthermore, the Texas Governor should NOT appoint the head of TxDOT.  It is a position that should be determined by Texas voters, even though the possibility of corruption is still present.  It is a top state position and one of great importance to the Texas community to leave it up to the Governor to appoint one of his top campaign contributors and/or special cronies.

One thing is certain.  We can no longer let TxDOT be managed without more careful scrutiny.  The Texas Legislature knows this already, but does nothing about it.

Diversion of [transportation] tax dollars

In Texas, Legislators love to divert tax dollars from one fund to others.   Currently they are considering moving one-third of the sales taxes provided to DPS now to TxDOT.

For once it would be nice for the People of Texas to be assured that their dollars go to the fund the money was originally slated for.

Legislators should not be able to move monies without the prior approval of taxpayers.

Write your Senator and House Reps and let them know how you feel about it.

House contacts

Senate contacts

Still Building Unnecessary Toll Roads

Texas Pushing Through Special Interest 130 and MoPac Toll Roads and More

Toll roads in general are simply ridiculous. They create long term debt and 80 percent off the top of toll collections go to the company that builds and operates the road. They usually create other unforeseen issues, e.g., on 130 motorists are hitting feral hogs at 85 mph.

The 130 toll way is almost as absurd as the proposed MoPac (LOOP 1) "managed care lanes" that are being pushed upon motorists. The problems inherent on MoPac are not being resolved. Instead, TxDOT and toll authorities continue to push for toll roads to make revenue instead of figuring out what will really move traffic along congested areas.

Private road companies like CINTRA will pay states $1 or $2 million or even more up front to ensure that it is considered to build and operate future toll roads. Then, where does that money go to? We don't see a paper trail. Where do TxDOT and legislators put those big dollars? TxDOT "found" $130 MILLION to put into the MoPac managed care lanes while still crying that it has no money to repair roadways, build new ones or build an overpass, say for MoPac and Slaughter Lane or to resolve the decade-long congestion crisis at the Oak Hill ‘Y’ intersection and many other road area issues throughout Texas.

Texans are being scammed all the time and they should be plenty angry at officials. Tweaking lights at intersections at different times of the day would help the flow of traffic, but TxDOT and/or the Department of Safety don't do that. Capital of Texas Highway (360) needs authorities to close the side roads at various lengths of the highway to permit the reasonable flow of traffic; however, they won’t. Instead, they opt to make drivers more angry and frustrated so that they will go along with endless toll road projects Governor Perry and his special interests want.

TxDOT is squawking again

In response to Ben Wear's Austin Statesman article "TxDOT says outsourcing highway maintenance could save millions, but previous pilot project fell flat"

 

We have learned during the past 10 years that what TxDOT has to say often means very little regarding the truth on various issues.

 

Mr. Wear makes some good points in the article, e.g., that TxDOT already has used private contractors to perform various highway and road building and maintenance. Unfortunately, more often than not, the work performed is not professional or quality oriented.