By Terri Hall
Founder/Executive Director
Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom (TURF) &
Texans for Toll-free Highways

While we headed into session with the wind at our backs having achieved a call to abolish all toll roads in the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) Platform and getting three pro-driver initiatives added to the official RPT Legislative Priorities, what we got in the end was one out of those three official priorities. 

What was it? The first ever Right to Repair bill — HB 2963 by Giovanni Capriglione (and SB 2428 by Senator Bob Hall in the Senate) — to become law in a red state. It’s YUGE when it comes to protecting drivers from dealer and manufacturer monopolies that force us to pay outlandish prices to repair or obtain replacement parts for our cars (which explodes the cost of car ownership). While it wasn’t our preferred bill (there was a stronger one authored by Rep. Pat Curry, HB 4555 and Senator Hall, SB 2748, that failed to get a hearing), it is a MAJOR step in the right direction and puts manufacturers on notice that the America First agenda includes making driving affordable again!

The other two official transportation-related RPT priorities listed under Ending Federal Overreach (priority #8) were ending road diets and protecting Texas drivers from the remote kill switch mandated to go into all vehicles starting next year. The bill to end road diets, HB 4348, also authored by Capriglione and Hall in the Senate, got a last minute hearing in the House and even made it onto the final House calendar, but failed to pass in time as the clock ran out. What is a road diet? Anti-car policies being adopted in many Texas cities that remove or shrink the lanes available to cars and repurpose them as bus or bike only lanes and/or sidewalks. 

It often also involves installing buffers like protruding curbs and sidewalks, artificially lowering speed limits and generally putting up interference for drivers that intentionally create congestion, road delay, and frustration — reducing quality of life. Meanwhile, transit ridership has fallen and failed to bounce back from pre-pandemic levels, despite all the gimmicks by cities to increase transit use. Roads diets have not pushed people out of their cars and into transit as advertised, rather, congestion and vehicle registrations have increased in Texas, while transit ridership continues to plummet. We’re nowhere near finished with this priority — Texans want congestion relief, not intentionally creating more of it with less efficient roads.

The Biden Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) includes a mandate to install a remote kill switch in all cars after 2026. The rule published by the U.S. Department of Transportation would allow the government to passively monitor your driving at all times, including with interior cameras on the driver to monitor eye movements, lane monitoring, as well as monitoring the air inside your car, presumably to detect ‘impairment’, then cut power to your car if it thinks you’re ‘impaired’ in some way. It’s a dangerous, unconstitutional, big government surveillance state in your car. The RPT Platform Plank #49 also urges swift action by the legislature to protect Texas drivers from vehicles with remote kill switches in them.

SB 381 by Senator Mayes Middleton and HB 2547 by Rep. Briscoe Cain would have prevented the sale of vehicles with remote kill switches in the Lone Star State. Dealers who violated the law would be subject to losing their license to sell vehicles in Texas. In a different bill by Rep. Nate Schatzline, HB 1074 dubbed the ‘Right to Drive Act,’ it included protection from vehicles with a remote kill switch, the right to own a gas-powered car, and the right to drive in a vehicle with human decision-making (vs being forced into autonomous vehicle). None of these bills even got a hearing, despite the massive party and grassroots support behind them. A separate bill by Curry, HB 2440, prohibiting government from banning vehicles based on fuel type did successfully pass. That’s welcome news for Texas drivers! Since then, President Donald Trump has successfully ended the EV mandates nationally. 

89th Session Wrap-Up:

• Texas lawmakers pass first Right to Repair bill in red state, other priorities unsuccessful (Failed to pass toll relief, didn't stop the kill switch, or road diets in Texas)
• No progress curbing tolls, but expansion stymied by grassroots
• BRAVE NEW WORLD: Driverless Autonomous Vehicles unleashed in Texas

By Terri Hall
Founder/Executive Director
Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom (TURF) &
Texans for Toll-free Highways

Four other priority bills to curb or reform toll roads also failed to pass. HB 1333 by Rep. Brian Harrison (and SB 137 authored by Hall in the senate) to cap toll fines and fees at $48 a year and remove the criminal penalty for unpaid toll bills never got a hearing in either chamber. HB 2323 by Rep. Matt Shaheen (and SB 2324 authored by Senator Angela Paxton in the Senate) to remove the tolls once the debt is paid off got a hearing, but failed to be brought up for a vote in committee, effectively killing it. Shaheen demonstrated he had the votes to get it out of committee on the day the bill was heard (March 31), yet there it sat for two full months as the House Transportation Committee Chair Tom Craddick allowed it to die. 

One of the reasons this bill needs to pass is to stop unelected toll bureaucracies from misusing the surplus toll revenues (on things that have nothing to do with maintaining the road or retiring the debt). But the most significant reason Texans need this bill is to end the practice of combining toll projects together into one financial system called ‘system financing.’ By tying toll roads together into one ‘system,’ toll bureaucrats can use it to keep pushing out the pay-off date by endlessly expanding the toll system with new extensions and adding new toll roads to the system in order to be able to claim no toll road is ever paid for. Think of it like taking out a second mortgage on your house over and over again so that it's never paid off. Perpetual tolling violates the Texas Constitution Art. I, Sec. 26 that prohibits perpetuities. It also violates RPT Platform Plank #51 that calls for tolls to be abolished. We must pass this bill in order to ever see an end to toll roads.

In contrast, the progress this session can be measured on what we stopped versus what was passed. SB 2722 by Senator Paul Bettencourt (and HB 5177 by Mano DeAyala) nearly passed, which would have further codified the use of surplus toll revenue into law, effectively allowing the practice to continue. The bill merely sought to split the surplus revenues made off the toll users to pay for various road projects among the various commissioner precincts and to pay the city of Houston for policing the toll roads. That’s hardly an improvement for toll weary drivers facing escalating forever tolls. It passed the Senate and nearly made it to the floor of the House. We expect this battle is far from over given the lobbying power of Harris County local governments. Houstonians need to pressure their public officials to remove the tolls, not split the kitty!

We also stopped a pair of bad bills by Rep. Will Metcalf. The first, HB 5347, would allow an existing freeway to be tolled and leave non-toll frontage lanes as the new non-toll option. It would undo the protection that Hall and Senator Lois Kolkhorst helped us put into law in 2017 that prevents non-tolled highways from being converted into toll roads. Tolling existing free lanes is a DOUBLE TAX scam and cannot be put back into law.

The second Metcalf bill, HB 5346, would keep extending tolls for five year increments by a public vote. While this may sound good at first, it’s a sneaky way to bypass the Texas Constitutional protection against perpetuities by extending the toll in short increments. Plus, politicians and the special interests who want toll roads are very adept at slick ad campaigns to convince voters they should keep the tolls to pay for things government won’t prioritize using your existing tax dollars. Bottom line is, once the debt is paid off, a road should become a freeway not stay a tollway that charges tolls, literally, forever. This bill also violates the RPT Platform Plank #51 that calls for tolls to be removed once the debt is paid off.

But the worst toll bill of the session was a proposed Constitutional Amendment, HJR 144 by Rep. Eddie Morales, bypassing state approval to allow any local government to form its own toll authority, known as a Regional Mobility Authority (RMA), effectively unleashing an unlimited number of new toll roads across Texas. It would also give cities the ability to do an end run around Governor Greg Abbott’s no toll pledge. The actual wording of the amendment said nothing about the possibility of toll roads or higher fees that could be imposed by an RMA. This would intentionally mislead voters about the tax implications of voting for it. 

TURF sued the state of Texas for similar intentionally deceptive ballot language and prevailed at the Appellate Court. Rather than abolish toll roads (as RPT platform calls for), this amendment would unleash scores of them in every corner of the state. Despite us having several points of order to call on the bill, no rep would call one, and it passed, 104-32. One hundred votes are needed to pass a constitutional amendment in the House. Thankfully, it died in the Senate. The fact it got that far with so much Republican help, so blatantly against the party platform, reveals the rift between lawmakers and the people they represent.

Extension of foreign-owned toll road halted

If there’s one thing Texans have a visceral disdain for it’s foreign control over Texas infrastructure. HB 2876 by Stan Gerdes would extend the SH 130 private toll contract an additional 20 years, amending the current Comprehensive Development Agreement (or CDA, known as public private partnership). Read more about SH 130’s breaches of contract, pavement defects, egregious taxpayer subsidies, loan guarantees, non-compete agreement, & bankruptcy here. The bill adds insult to injury since the concession fees the private corporation would pay the state for the 20 year exclusive right to gouge Texas drivers with more tolls would be used to build more free connectors to SH 130 from I-35, further benefiting the private operators. 

Incredibly, despite all off this information being given to every lawmaker prior to the floor vote,  HB 2876 passed by a vote of 88-42. However, thanks to Senate Transportation Committee Chair Robert Nichols, the bill never got a hearing over in the Senate. When it was clear HB 2876 would not pass, Gerdes took the opportunity in the dark of night to attach an amendment to an otherwise innocuous bill, SB 3047 to create a management district in Travis County, to find another avenue to get the private toll road connector built. Thankfully, Gerdes was forced to remove his amendment on 3rd reading after we pummeled the House members with calls and emails in opposition. It demonstrates the lengths the special interests and the politicians beholden to them will go to in order to gouge Texas drivers with more toll taxes!

Photo enforcement bills quashed

One of the first big battles of the session was to kill the resurrection of a photo ticketing scam by Senator Donna Campbell (SB 744) and Rep. Tom Craddick (HB 3034), but instead of red light cameras, it would be cameras on school bus stop arms. TURF and our coalition of grassroots groups flooded the committee with opposition and did a major press push to alert Texans to the threat. TURF brought up the camera company, Bus Patrol a rebranded version of Force Multiplier Solutions, and its Dallas County Schools multi-billion bribery scandal resulting in several key players going to prison.  

Rep. Mitch Little followed-up by interrogating the Bus Patrol witness, revealing the nepotism, corruption, and graft behind the school bus photo ticketing happening in other states. In just Suffolk County, Virginia, there were 250,000 tickets issued — the equivalent of one out of every 9 residents receiving a ticket. The companies keep 70% of the $200 tickets, which Little called a ‘bounty.’ In just two years, the company made $20 million in revenue off of a single county’s school district. In Florida, in just one school district, there were 11,500 warning tickets issued in just the first two weeks. 

Yet, over the most recent 10 year period in Texas, no school-aged children were killed by a car illegally passing a school bus. Nationwide, there were 4 fatalities, with the chance of a child being killed by a car illegally passing a school bus at 1 in 22.75 billion. So it’s abundantly clear these bills were a solution in search of a problem. Truly, these ticketing scams are policing for profit, not about safety. Though both the Senate and House versions were heard two days apart, our opposition was so overwhelming, we managed to kill both bills in committee, never to be heard from again.

After seeing the opposition to photo ticketing, the construction work zone camera bill, HB 3309, managed to get out of the House only after some tight guardrails like requiring in-person law enforcement officers issue every ticket were firmly in the bill. But even that wasn’t enough to go anywhere in the Senate. Texans have spoken loud and clear — they do not want camera ticketing programs. 

89th Session Wrap-Up:

• Texas lawmakers pass first Right to Repair bill in red state, other priorities unsuccessful (Failed to pass toll relief, didn't stop the kill switch, or road diets in Texas)
• No progress curbing tolls, but expansion stymied by grassroots
• BRAVE NEW WORLD: Driverless Autonomous Vehicles unleashed in Texas

By Terri Hall
Founder/Executive Director
Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom (TURF) &
Texans for Toll-free Highways

BRAVE NEW WORLD

One of the most stealth transportation bills of the session was related to the regulation (or lack of it) of Autonomous Vehicles (AVs), SB 2425 by Nichols. This particular bill was to authorize level 4 and 5 AVs to operate on Texas roadways without any requirement of a human driver. While we brought up several serious concerns, like a hostile actor or government gaining control of a fleet of AVs and using them for a mass casualty event, in both the Senate and House Committees, the AV bill was attached as an amendment by Capriglione to a totally different bill, SB 2807 by Senator Brent Hagenbuch, without any debate. If our guys were paying close enough attention, they could have easily called a point of order because the AV amendment was not relevant to the bill (completely unrelated or not ‘germane’ to the primary bill, which isn’t allowed under the rules), but it was hastily passed before anyone had a chance to amend it. 

At least two amendments would have been debated had the AV bill gone through the usual floor debate prior to the vote. One would have been to require a human driver (from Rep. Christina Morales who had a stand alone bill to do that), and the other by Rep. Andy Hopper (who also had a stand alone bill) to clarify liability when there’s no human driver actually operating the vehicle. Currently, there are no AVs that operate without human drivers outside of commercial trucks and robotaxi services like WayMo, Cruise, and soon to be Tesla. So while consumers may not have to face it yet, they should be aware of the tremendous legal risk of owning or renting out any sort of AV as a taxi service since the current law places liability on the owner, not the AI technology actually responsible for operating the vehicle. In the event regular consumers can purchase their own level 4 or 5 AV for their personal use, buyer beware — you’re liable when the technology fails and causes crashes or fatalities.  

The only real regulation put on these driverless AVs was a permitting process, establishing a system for how AVs must interact with law enforcement and EMS, and the requirement to carry a certain level of insurance. Lawmakers deliberately did not tackle liability issues and fully admit lawsuits will fly when accidents happen. The bill even bars local governments from enacting any further regulations. In speaking with a reporter about the bill, she said the approach to regulating these AVs was like building a plane while it’s already in the air. She couldn’t be more right!

Almost as scary, was House passage of the Digital ID bill, HB 3426 also by Capriglione. Digital IDs on a person's Smart phone can be hacked, used to steal Texans' identities, and misused by bad actors. Digital IDs are also opposed in the RPT platform Plank #49. Many conservatives voted for it, falling for the argument it’s ‘voluntary’ not mandatory. However, 9 states have already turned their ‘voluntary’ digital ID programs into mandatory ones in AZ, CA, CO, GA, HI, IA, MD, NM, and OH. 

How would the state not incur virtually unlimited costs for cybersecurity firms to secure this data and keep hackers at bay? Is this not an ongoing expense that cannot possibly be covered in whatever nominal fee DPS charges for the digital IDs? Yet the bill had no fiscal note. We don’t have an honest analysis of these bills by the Legislative Budget Board if they can claim a digital ID program comes with no cost to the state to implement and maintain it! It passed the House 119-30, but thankfully went nowhere in the Senate.

Most Texans don’t share the love affair with bikes

Every session, TURF fends off the relentless onslaught of anti-car legislation aiming to restrict cars by slowing speeds, forcing you to vacate a lane to pass a bike, or otherwise give deference to bikes, buses and pedestrians. In a last gasp House Transportation Committee hearing very late in the session, a series of Leftist, anti-car bills were pushed by radical climate alarmist groups like Vision Zero, Farm & City, and Safe Streets Austin to restrict your mobility. But thanks to the hard work of TURF and its grassroots coalition, none passed. However, an early one that made it through was SB 305 by Senator Charles Perry to expand the move over laws to force you to vacate a lane for animal control and parking enforcement vehicles on the shoulder of a road, these are in addition to the other vehicles already in statute like EMS, police, and tow trucks. The list grows every session.  

Freedom recedes as government grows

Even the tax on roadside lemonade stands (repealed in 2019) was resurrected and passed this session, in HB 2012 by Cecil Bell. The legislature just gave Texans the freedom from government interference with things like a kids' lemonade stand to earn some money and learn entrepreneurship, yet only a few years later, they flip flopped and imposed the tax once again (brought to you by the taxpayer-funded lobbyists at the Texas Association of Counties).  We're choking under regulation! 

The long, incremental march to increase your taxes and erode your freedom to travel is alive and well, and it’s often being perpetrated by big government Republicans, not Democrats. There are literally dozens more bad bills that passed one chamber or both this session, but it’s time to turn off the firehose. You get the idea. Calling the session a 'mixed bag’ is being generous. TURF will release its Report Card later this summer, with each lawmaker’s grade based on every record vote related to every transportation bill we weighed in on, and EVERY legislator was given fair notice of our support or opposition prior to each vote. So let the accountability begin!

89th Session Wrap-Up:

• Texas lawmakers pass first Right to Repair bill in red state, other priorities unsuccessful (Failed to pass toll relief, didn't stop the kill switch, or road diets in Texas)
• No progress curbing tolls, but expansion stymied by grassroots
• BRAVE NEW WORLD: Driverless Autonomous Vehicles unleashed in Texas

Massie shreds panelist about the pie in the sky remote kill switch technology during the first House Subcommittee on Highways hearing of the new congress on February 12, 2025.

Nation's first congestion toll now active in Manhattan

MANHATTAN, New York City (WABC) -- For many New Yorkers, Monday was the first day back to work following the holiday break, and for a swath of commuters, it was also the first time they paid the new congestion pricing toll to enter Manhattan below 60th Street.

On Monday, Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed to closely study congestion pricing data, and make changes to the program, if needed.

"I am committed and the MTA is committed to intensely monitoring the trends, and if adjustments are necessary, to be willing to make those going forward," she said.

"Traffic is down today," but Hochul noted it is also snowing. "Today is the first day. I wouldn't count today, let's give it a few days to sink in and get a trend."

WATCH | NJ drivers discuss impact of congestion pricing on commute

New York City's new congestion pricing toll began on Sunday, meaning many people will pay $9 to access the busiest part of the Big Apple during peak hours.

The toll is meant to reduce traffic gridlock in the densely packed city while raising money to help fix its ailing public transit infrastructure.

Congestion toll chaos will push commuters to ditch their cars in northern Manhattan, outer boroughs: 'New park-and-ride'

TxDOT pushes forward on buyback of SH 288
Action would reduce average daily toll rates by 50%

Aug. 23, 2024

AUSTIN - To provide Texans with toll relief and more free lanes on which to drive, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is preparing to terminate the SH 288 Comprehensive Development Agreement (CDA).

This action will place the SH 288 managed lanes in Harris County under full state control allowing future toll rates to be significantly less than what is allowed under the current agreement and enabling TxDOT to move ahead with adding more free lanes along SH 288.

“Building roads, reducing tolls, and saving taxpayer money are top priorities,” said Governor Greg Abbott. “All three are achieved with the Texas Department of Transportation terminating the SH 288 Comprehensive Development Agreement. It will allow the State of Texas to receive over $2 billion in added valuation. TxDOT will use the added value to slash future toll charges and to build free lanes on that segment of State Highway 288. I thank TxDOT for making it easier and cheaper for Texans to travel that route.”

TxDOT Toll Road $1.7 Billion Purchase Plan Draws More Complaints from Elected Officials, Candidates

Officials and candidates see the move as a form of double taxation.

• Kim Roberts
• Aug 22, 2024
• l The Texan

Texas Sues General Motors Over Collection and Sale of Private Driving Data

General Motors was allegedly compensated for the deals with lump-sum payments and royalties, some worth millions of dollars.

The State Highway 288 toll lanes were part of a public-private partnership agreement that was originally set to last 50 years.

Brandon Waltens | July 26, 2024 l Texas Scorecard

Updated with comment from TxDOT on 7/29

The Texas Department of Transportation is contemplating the purchase of a Houston-area toll road from a private developer, with potential plans to maintain the tolls for Texans.

This unique arrangement involves terminating an existing agreement this October, spending nearly $1.7 billion to acquire the already-built toll lanes on Highway 288, and taking over its management and operations.

Lawmakers turned to toll roads to boost the Texas economy and address population growth without raising taxes, but the consequences have adversely affected some drivers.

The Dallas Morning News - By Yamil Berard
May 13, 2024

Link to full article...
Dallas Morning News Interactives (For Subscribers)

Every day, thousands of drivers jump on toll roads to ease their commutes to work and school.

Toll roads overlook international bridges and crossings on the Texas-Mexico border, they connect drivers to airports all over the state and they circumnavigate urban cores by way of loops and tunnels.

Texas has so many toll roads that it has earned the distinction of building more miles than nearly all other states combined. Picture this: If you stretched the state’s 852 miles of toll roads across the eastern U.S., they would pass through 13 states — from Maine to South Carolina, a yearlong Dallas Morning News investigation has found.

ABOUT THIS SERIES

Toll Trap is a three-day series exploring how the state's tollway system impacts drivers across the state. Our investigation found that Texas in the last 20 years has built more toll roads than almost all other states combined. The state also aggressively penalizes drivers with unpaid toll bills - even sending their cases to local courts every day. The state, unlike many others, also offers few discounts to drivers who feel entrapped by the toll roads that surround them. Investigative reporter Yamil Berard and data journalist Shuyao Xiao spent months examining Texas' tollway system. The journalists read thousands of pages of legislative reports, transportation studies, as well as financial statements and audits for toll roads operated by Texas' three largest toll agencies since 1998. They spoke with dozens of urban planning specialists, tollway advocacy groups, public policy researchers and mobility engineers and examined roadway and toll data from state and population density information. They filed and read reports from open records requests and attempted to speak to all 22 members of the House and Senate transportation committees along with Gov. Greg Abbott and other high-ranking current and previous elected state leaders.