TaXDOT Derails Taxpayers

TaXDOT Derails Taxpayers
by Randy Samuelson

Recently, a report leaked from the Texas Department of Transportation that should make every taxpayer cringe. The report that leaked included a plan for TXDOT to purchase stretches of highways from the federal government and turn these roads into toll ways. No longer do the bureaucracies work to protect and maintain our public infrastructure; instead, they are looking for ways to generate additional revenue from our public infrastructure.
The audacity of generating revenue from public infrastructure is not new for this set of TXDOT Commissioners. A plan in June called for speeding cameras to be installed on certain stretches of state highways for the purpose of “generating revenue.” No longer do these unelected boards even try to hide their real intents behind the cloak of “public safety” goals. The ground swell among the government elite after the Minneapolis bridge collapse was to raise the gas tax. These commissioners are now flat out telling us that they want more money and will stop at nothing to get it and will use any means to achieve that goal. At the same time that TXDOT is claiming to be low on funds, they are funding a $10 million statewide campaign to encourage toll road use.
The audacity of using public infrastructure to generate revenue from taxpayers by charging them twice for the same service is egregious. Toll roads in themselves are the most efficient way to build new highways, but the plans of removing or cluttering existing free roads to force drivers to take a toll road is not the epitome of choice that this country is built on.
If the highway planners will not give drivers choice, then it is time the taxpayers have the ability to chose the highway planners. In looking at the State agencies and bureaucracies that are run efficiently, you will notice that the most efficient bureaucracies are the Railroad Commission, the Land Commission, and the Agriculture Commission. All three of these agencies accomplish their respective goals with a limited budget. All three of these agencies also give the people the ability to elect the head of the agency and thereby hold the entire agency accountable. It is time the Commissioners of the Texas Department of Transportation become elected officials as well. Any government agency that has the power to raise taxes, fees, and utilize public infrastructure to generate new revenue must be held accountable to the taxpayers.
In a debate this year between TXDOT Commissioner Ric Williamson and State Senator John Carona (Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee), Ric Williamson indicated that he was only accountable to the Governor of Texas and not to the State Legislature nor to the people of Texas. This attitude can start to change by asking the Legislature to enact a constitutional amendment forcing the TXDOT Commissioners to become elected officials to work for the people of Texas. The best ideas and initiatives for efficiently running the government do not come from career bureaucrats. The best ideas come from average Americans who identify problems, create solutions, and then communicate those solutions to others. When unelected bureaucrats refuse to listen to the people, the people are let down by their government. It is time to make the unelected bureaucrats in TXDOT listen to the people through an election.