Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

Letter to Heather

Hi Heather,

I believe that tolling existing highways is a very bad idea. I agree with Carona—taxpayers should not pay twice.

I wrote TXDOT the day I read this article (see below) and asked them to drop the idea.

Public agency tolling (if rates are set by elected officials) can work—if the return and the rates are fair and dedicated. Privatizing highways or private ownership of toll projects is not a good idea—the rate of return should go to roads, not CINTRA or CINTRA’s banks. Not only do elected officials (and the public) lose control of toll rates, but money goes outside highways and into profits that should be reinvested in roads. 

During session, I proposed several bills to finance highways and rail relocation.

For an example of ‘public tolling’ take a look at our international bridges—if the choice is no bridge or a toll bridge, we in El Paso made that decision long ago.

Over time, we must move to more mass transit, especially since gas will go to $4.00 soon. In El Paso, a starter 10 mile commuter rail system can be achieved for the lowest cost per mile in Texas. In fact, we had one for almost 60 years before some interests in Juarez decided it should go.

For more information, you can see our articles on public tolling, financing roads and mass transit on our website.

Thank you for sending me this article.

 

Eliot Shapleigh

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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saturday, September 01, 2007

The chairman of the Texas Senate transportation committee said he's certain that lawmakers would oppose any effort by the state Department of Transportation to charge tolls on existing interstate highways.

The department is lobbying Congress to pass a federal law that would allow the state to "buy back" parts of interstates and turn them into toll roads.

"I think it's a dreadful recommendation on the part of the transportation commissioners here in Texas," said state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas.

"I feel confident that legislators in Austin would overwhelmingly be opposed to such an idea," he said. "The simple fact is that taxpayers have already paid for those roadways. To ask taxpayers to pay for them twice is untenable."

The department's plan, which is outlined in a report called Forward Momentum, also suggests tax breaks for private company investment in projects to convert interstates to tollways.

The report seeks changes in federal law to allow the use of equity capital as a source of transportation funding. It also calls for altering the tax code to "exempt partnership distributions or corporate dividends related to ownership of (a) toll road from income taxation."

Transportation Department spokesman Chris Lippincott said Texas law would require approval by county commissioners and taxpayers in a referendum if the state wanted to convert interstate highways to toll roads.

Robert Black, a spokesman for Gov. Rick Perry, said the report doesn't contradict Perry's position that free highways will not be converted to tollways. That wouldn't change without the approval of local voters, he said.

Lippincott said he wouldn't have expected the report, which was released in February, to surprise lawmakers.

It was discussed at four public meetings, he said, and the department sent a link to the draft report to all state lawmakers last December.