Governor Perry vetoes check on TxDOT

Agency can advocate tolling

Jay Blazek Crossley, Jun 24, 09.

Governor Perry vetoed HB 2142 “relating to the promotion of toll projects by the Texas Department of Transportation.”

According to current law, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is allowed to spend taxpayer funds to lobby in favor of tolling as a policy alternative and to spend money to advertise to the public in favor of tolling as a solution to transportation problems. The bill specifically would have allowed TxDOT to continue advertising for actual toll projects and providing information to the public, legislature, and other agencies, but would prohibit attempting to change public opinion on tolling.

Governor Perry’s statement explaining his veto states that the bill would prevent TxDOT from “advertising resources such as toll tags.”

House Bill No. 2142 limits the Texas Department of Transportation’s ability to market or advertise the use of toll roads or tolling as a method of paying for highway projects, preventing the state from advertising resources such as toll tags. Marketing toll roads as a user-fee-based alternative to congested highways is important to relieving congestion on other state roads and keeping Texas moving.

However, the bill specifically supports TxDOTs duty to provide the public with useful information and even doing things like advertising that citizens should get toll tags, as shown below from the final language of the bill:

Sec.A228.004.AA TOLL PROJECT INFORMATION.

(a) The department may, notwithstanding Chapter 2113, Government Code, engage in marketing, advertising, and other activities to provide information relating to the status of pending or ongoing toll projects and may enter into contracts or agreements necessary to procure marketing, advertising, or informational services from outside service providers.

(b)This section does not authorize the department to engage in marketing, advertising, or other activities for the purpose of influencing public opinion about the use of toll roads or the use of tolls as a financial mechanism.

State Representative Ruth Jones McClendon, who co-authored the bill along with Representative Jose Menendez, noted in her press release upon passage of the bill:

Although the use of state funds to engage in marketing or advertising or providing useful public information is an acceptable use of state revenues, activities by state agencies which promote or oppose legislation, including the development or use of toll roads, is not. TxDOT needs to be committed to the goals of the public, not just promoting its own goals.

State Senator Kirk Watson released a statement on all of the vetoes, with a section devoted to HB 2142:

Also, and this shows so much chutzpah that I still can’t believe it, the Governor vetoed a bill prohibiting TxDOT from actively advertising their toll roads.

Again, the bill passed unanimously at nearly every step (it passed 132-1 on the House floor). And all it says is TxDOT can’t spend taxpayer money influencing public opinion about toll roads.

Now, I’m a believer in transportation solutions. And because the state hasn’t given us any tools but toll roads to address Central Texas’ huge traffic problems, I’ve voted to get people out of traffic the only way we can.

But I certainly don’t think it’s appropriate, particularly on such a controversial issue, for TxDOT to be actively influencing public opinion about something that’s amounted to a political agenda for years. Isn’t that the Governor’s job these days?

Expect to read more about these and other vetoes in the months ahead. I fear that some will have some tragic real-world consequences.

Terri Hall, who is a leader of the anti-toll movement in Texas, wrote a lengthy reaction to the veto in mySA, which is being carried elsewhere. Also, “theNewspaper.com: a journal of the politics of driving” covers the veto as well, which notes that the anti-toll group, Texans United for Reform and Freedom, had withdrawn a lawsuit it had filed related to this bill, as they understood that the bill would take care of the problem. The veto may open the door to their continued pursuit of that lawsuit.