The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) spends more than $10m a year on public affairs. Using documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, the San Antonio Express News found TxDOT assigned 63 employees to the Government and Public Affairs division, at an annual cost of $6.5m. Another 67 employees perform “media relations” duties, at a cost of $4m per year. The employee count does not include private contractors hired as lobbyists paid to wine and dine lawmakers in the hopes of landing earmarks, a controversial tactic that spawned at least one lawsuit. These efforts– indeed, the majority of TxDOT’s PR activities– have been primarily aimed at promoting toll roads. Last year, the agency delivered a report to the Texas legislature entitled “Forward Momentum,” designed to convince federal officials to give TxDOT the authority to toll existing freeways. Massive public protests, most prominently against the Trans-Texas Corridor, forced TxDOT to change tactics. Since May, they’ve backed off from promoting tolling as the solution to Texas’ transportation problems.
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We can thank Rick Perry and his friends for the toll situation in Texas. They’re all crooks who line each others pockets at the expense of the citizens.
I was unfortunate enough to be in Houston awhile back. Literally a toll booth every 10 feet. By the time your back up to speed, you have to slow down for the next toll booth. Glad I dont live there.
The North Texas Toll Authority is doing away with all toll booth operators and cash payments. You’ll either have to have a radio toll tag (and pay a marginally lower price) or pay the ticket sent via mail to you. Such a great idea, especially for visitors.
Government employees have so, so much respect for the people who pay their salaries.
As the name implies, I live in Austin. I’m a native NYer who was very used to getting banged at tolls on a regular basis in the Tri State area so it didn’t bother me much when new toll roads opened up around here.
The one innovation I really love here is the TX Tag, which is basically the evolution of the EZ Pass I had in NYC. With this TX Tag, you don’t have to slow down or stop at all. you can continue to blast down the road at full speed while the sensors above the road picks up your chip – basically embedded in a sticker you put behind your rearview mirror – and charges your account.
Being from the West I was not intimately familiar with toll roads. I’d ridden on them on buses overseas, but never driven one until last year.
They suck. It’s like you’re driving through the secure area of an airport (except security isn’t chasing after you with guns drawn, at least not all the time) It’s the fact that you have to pay to enter and exit. And if you’re not a regular and don’t have an automatic pass, it is also a pain in the ass. It essentially gives you a disincentive to pull off of the highway. This allows turnpike rest stops and gas stations to suck in every regard except cleanliness, and still stay in business because it costs people to go elsewhere. (Also, I think most of them have exclusive deals, so there’s no competition on the toll road)
Would I be correct in guessing that fast food and convenience store owners along the freeways are opposed to toll roads? They should be.
I intend to avoid Oklahoma if I ever drive to the East Coast again, and now it looks like I’ll have to steer clear of Texas, too. (Maybe that’ll be for the best. I’ve never visited Colorado or Kansas.)
I used to do toll roads in Italy. Hated them but understood that they were a necessary part of the “socialist” gov’t who had so much to fund – like universal healthcare. That’s another topic but isn’t it funny that the gov’t debate here is about whether we ought to have it and not as much about whether we can afford it? All sorts of budget problems here in TN yet we are talking about more social “progress”.
WTF is going wrong with our gov’ts in this country? Why are they all so cronically short on funds? Is it because the same crew that get’s their personal finances in a death spiral is in charge of our gov’ts too? You know – the APR funded McMansion crews…
I know in this state part of the problem is a recession which diminishes the state sale tax revenue and thus the funding for most of our state budget. No, I don’t want an income tax either. Penalizes folks who like to earn and then save and yes, that is who I strive to be. The no-sales tax internet purchase loophole has got to be part of the problem too.
If we can’t afford the gov’t services then we don’t need to keep them. Period. I suppose some folks identify progress with more gov’t spending on the wellbeing of our towns and citizens. I see some of those good intentions as being perfect noble but if we can’t afford them then we can’t afford them. Doesn’t mean we need to pursue additional revenue to cover additional spending.
Our TN gov is talking about tollroads too. Going to tax, -er toll the folks coming across the Mississippi on I-40. Last I heard the state DOT budget was healthy. Also heard that the state has a general fund instead of earmarked funding which would make it easier to see/control where the money goes. Either different departments can fund themselves or not.
Maybe the state gov’ts need to consider switching their computers to free Linux from MS Windows. Free OpenOffice from MS Office. Switching the computers to a much slower replacement cycle. Turning off the lights more often. Heat less, cool less. Gov’t vehicles without all the creature comforts. Once upon a time the gov’t vehicles were the plainest of Jane. Not recently. Got to have power conveniences and a/c. Same with our schools. All sorts of subscription services to “enhance” the educational experience. Loaded out classrooms. TV/DVD/VCR + computers in every classroom. Chalkboards replaced with fancy marker boards and in some cases – equipped with network connections so students can see the the lecture diagrams in their notes. My child brings home alot of copied worksheets vs copy from the board and complete exercises so there is the cost of paper and toner.
Don’t get me wrong I’m a technology guy – it’s my job but I see the cost of stuff and how much tech later gets trashed with low mileage on it.
The current (outgoing) Secretary of Transportation (federal) has made it more than abundantly clear: Future federal funding will go to states that can partner up with “private participation.” And “private participation” means little else than “tolling” in order to raise money.
Now then, we’ll see what the Obama administration looks like, but as things are headed now, Texas just might be getting a leg up on all of the other states in the west. With their ultra-distastes for tolling, the western states could really wind up being left out in the cold, when the federal gas tax funds wind up being handed out to more toll-friendly states.
We’ve had it hammered into peoples’ heads for so long that taxes are too high that it would be political suicide to raise the gas tax.
Which, by the way, doesn’t, today, come remotely close to paying the cost of maintaining the roads you drive on while paying it. The shortfall is made up for by the fact that you have to pay gas tax on a lot of roads that never get funded that way, and on direct subsidies from state and local general funds.
Toll roads are good in the sense that bus fares and train fares are good: the user pays (some) of the cost at the time they consume the service. This is far better in incenting (or disincenting) efficient behavior than is the very indirect, and highly unfair to cities, gas tax.
Davek,
The only thing they did correct is NOT put a toll booth everywhere on the Houston tollroads. It’s possible to get on and off at the wrong spot and have to pay three times in a short distance, but in that case, you could have stayed on the service road for free.
At any rate, the whole thing is reminding Texans not to trust Austin, or DC. Unfortunately, it’s an expensive lesson.
Who would ever want to create a business with a monopoly that has the ability to condemn any property it wants in order to expand? Businesses like that never run well, and any conservative should know that.
A hearty “amen” to joeaverage’s comments. For years I was witness to the extravagances of state government, and let me assure you, “efficiency” means “successfully making the argument for more funding.” IT people are among the worst at favoring more expensive choices. Line-item pork in appropriation bills means caviar for projects or programs that can’t compete on their own.
One little boondoggle that bothered me was the remodeling crew employed by the welfare department. The official justification for these carpenters, cabinetmakers and painters was the need to maintain buildings at the department’s institutions. The real value was being able to do favors for legislators. You say the senator wants a snazzier office? How many gorgeous built-in bookcases would he like? Other state agencies were favored with the crew’s services when they weren’t tied up at the Capitol.
I used to do toll roads in Italy. Hated them but understood that they were a necessary part of the “socialist” gov’t who had so much to fund
In theory, pay-as-you-go tolls are a libertarian, and therefore conservative, concept. Libertarians believe that it is unfair for non-users to support the users. They want these sorts of projects to be self-supporting, which means charging user fees directly to those who use the good.
A socialist system would charge fees based upon the ability to pay. The poor would not have to pay; the wealthy would pay more.
The theory of free roads is ultimately a liberal one. That would view transportation as a social good that needs to be paid for by everyone, including those who don’t use it themselves, but little would be done to integrate social leveling into the price structure.
In practice, there is no consistent rule of thumb that is used to determine whether or not tolls are charged. Some places use them, others don’t, and underlying political theory has little to do with the policy.
There’s a right way and a wrong way to do tolls. The right way is to *ADD* bountiful new gleaming roads to the existing infrastructure. This is what we’re seeing, for now, in Central Texas, and it’s great. If you don’t want to pay, just use the old roads — they’re still there but relieved of the heavy traffic. You can be a total free rider and still benefit. This has been an absolute Godsend for my morning and evening commute (I pay the toll if in a hurry; otherwise I travel free).
That’s what’s often missing from this reporting — the free ways are still there; the toll ways are strictly new capacity (at least around here, for now).
On the other hand, the money from that of course makes politicians greedy for more, and inevitably they next want to plant toll booths on every existing road in sight, with no expansion or improvements to compensate for it. Toll roads can be good but the situation requires never-ending vigilance because, yes, of course politicians are crooks.
PCH,
This is why I don’t fit in with the libertarians. Many of them, like Bob Poole of the Reason Foundation, look at tolls as this great way to put their ideology into action. In theory it works great, but in reality, it works horribly.
First, the fuel tax is incredibly efficient. It’s not perfect, but it’s really easy on the citizens who simply pay at the pump. It acts as a user fee and as a pollution tax. Elegant, and simple. It keeps government small. Their job is to look at road use, do their best to predict patterns, and build roads. Without a hell of a lot of diligence, they can do this reasonably well. There are LOTs of compromises, but land use will often adjust for any mistakes.
Now, if you completely switched to a toll only system, you supposedly get libertarian nirvana. We can theoretically now manage road use by raising and lowering fees in a “market” system. We get all sorts of “market information” to help with development. You pay for what you use, and by privatizing it, you really can get away with lots of pesky government types.
Only one problem, it’s a wet dream while sleeping on an electric blanket. What libertarian thinks that government isn’t going to use all this for all sorts of corrupt uses and social engineering? Which one of these guys thinks that the private companies won’t be just as bad as the government in it’s abuses? They aren’t normal companies, they are utilities, and those are always under the thumb of government. Did these guys all forget that most road building involves emminent domain? Do we really want the for profit folks using this power? Too many agencies use it to expand their budgets now (see Houston ISD land grabs for example). In short, these guys are only looking one layer deep into their own ideology or they would see that it’s all about what they are against.
We now have a HUGE government entity that we didn’t even HAVE before the toll roads.
Now, it gets worse…
Kevin,
Did you ever think that those extra roads should have been paid for by the fuel taxes of the people sitting in traffic? Let me tell you what happened in Houston. The roads that should be expanded that compete with tollroad, not to mention the roads that had been planned for decades that were replaced by the toll roads are not being built. All sorts of effort is taken to get you onto the toll roads.
They layered the toll road system on top of the gas tax. Also, they used emminent domain to build those roads. Lastly, when the original toll roads were built, the toll was supposed to sunset at the end of the bonds, but instead, they rolled the old roads into a new “system” of roads so they could keep the booths up. I would bet dollars to donuts that the toll road folks are on a pension plan, and their jobs were supposed to be eliminated in the first place!
It’s not free that they built the toll road and you don’t use it. You paid for it, and now can’t use it without paying EXTRA. Government just got bigger and bigger, and they move the money somewhere else in a giant shell game.
This is why I don’t fit in with the libertarians. Many of them, like Bob Poole of the Reason Foundation, look at tolls as this great way to put their ideology into action. In theory it works great, but in reality, it works horribly.
Yes, indeed. Libertarianism, like communism, is idealistic political fantasy that often fails in real world practice.
Privately-operated toll roads often produce two results. They either fail, requiring government bailouts (you can’t just shut down a big chunk of infrastructure simply because it isn’t making money), or else they lead to the deterioration of other roads, because the private operators protest improvements to the free alternatives that help their competition.
Meanwhile, in the interest of speed, the collection practices are becoming increasingly Orwellian, dependent upon black boxes and tracking devices. Is that what libertarians really want?