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Texans Urged to Speak On Unfair Tolling Policy
State Sen. Robert Nichols has weighed in on a driving issue: forcing Texans to pay tolls on existing roads.
“Utilizing tolls to build new roads, or even to add additional lanes to current roads, is an innovative strategy that allows our infrastructure to keep pace with our growing population and transportation demand,” the Jacksonville Republican says. “Current state fuel taxes hardly cover the cost of maintaining current roads, much less building new ones, so a justifiable need exists for toll projects.”
Nichols saw those needs as a Texas Transportation Commission member.
“(But) there is a huge difference, however, between using tolls to pay for new projects and tolling hard-working Texas taxpayers for roads they have already purchased with their tax dollars,” he contends.
State officials became aware of the issue two years ago.
“In 2005, legislators realized that previous legislation had granted the Texas Department of Transportation the authorization to toll existing roads - roads Texas taxpayers have already built with their tax dollars,” Nichols explains. “At that time, they attempted to pass new legislation banning the practice, but the bill died in the House committee. Therefore, legislators wishing to protect taxpayers had to settle for a compromise that would only allow TxDOT to toll existing lanes with the approval of local voters.”
As a freshman state senator, Nichols attempted to correct this.
“In 2007, I filed SB 1268 which would have prohibited the conversion of existing lanes to toll roads,” Nichols recounts. “With the support of Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, the bill passed the Senate unanimously, but it again died in the House committee.”
That leaves the 2005 compromise in place.
“Because legislation prohibiting the conversion of existing lanes to toll roads continues to die in House committee, the compromise continues to serve as state policy,” Nichols says. “This means members of a specific community could vote to toll existing roads coming into and out of their community - tolls they will very rarely have to pay unless they leave their community, but that will obstruct the free flow of commerce and put our state at a competitive disadvantage to other states in our region such as Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Louisiana.”
But TxDOT wants more, Nichols warns.
“As if the current situation is not bad enough, TxDOT now wants to expand its authority to toll existing interstate highways (highways we have already paid for with tax dollars) by ‘buying’ them from the federal government so they can convert them to toll roads,” Nichols says. “That’s right, TXDOT wants to use Texas taxpayer dollars to purchase federal highways that Texas taxpayers paid to build and then charge Texans a toll to continue driving on them. According to my calculation, this equals triple taxation.”
But the state’s delegation in Washington stepped in.
“Thankfully, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison passed an amendment placing a one-year moratorium on TxDOT’s ability to enact this plan, but we are not out of danger yet,” Nichols says. “Sen. Hutchison’s amendment must survive a conference committee where numerous parties will try to remove it from the legislation before it becomes law.”
Nichols urges Texans to make their voices heard.
“As we have in so many other circumstances, it is time for Texas citizens to step up and demand this unfair policy be stopped,” Nichols says. “Please contact your representatives in Washington and ask them to support Sen. Hutchison’s amendment, and when the state legislature re-convenes in January 2009, I will work with other members to permanently end this unfair policy statewide.”
