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Follow TURFTxDOT Sunset runs amok: Little reform to be found
Toll road, Trans Texas Corridor, special interest lovefest
(Austin, TX - April 29, 2011) Today, the Texas House will consider the Sunset Bill, HB 2675, for the Texas Department of Transportation. Judging by the pre-filed 77 amendments, the priority of this Legislature is not fixing an agency run amok, but rather handing Texas’ roads to private, foreign corporations and increasing taxes (corporate toll road rates of 75 cents a mile, and vehicle registration and gas taxes hikes in certain areas).
At least three other major pieces of controversial legislation were drafted as amendments, one that’s a special interest giveaway (design-build contracts that eliminate low bid, competitive bidding with “best value” bidding rife with favoritism, abuses), and two that involve multi-leveraging of taxpayer money being loaned for both public and private toll roads for which the taxpayer will pay back their own money with interest through tolls!
HB 2255, in amendment form with four more projects added to the mix, by Larry Phillips would privatize and toll 11 different Texas highways from DFW to the Valley, and George Lavender and Eddie Lucio III’s amendments would revive segments of the Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69/I-69 in Bowie County and down in the Valley. The authors of the other bills to privatize Texas roadways are Tan Parker and Linda Harper-Brown.
Particularly with Hwy 183 (Rep. Harper-Brown's amendment), TxDOT has telegraphed in an Austin Statesman article that this project will be 100% paid for with ALL Texans’ gas taxes (so this is NOT a ‘local’ issue, as lawmakers argue, when it uses ALL Texans' money) then handed to a private concessionaire to be a toll collector for the next 50 years on a road that’s PAID FOR!
Read it here and scroll to the bottom of the story.
"The fact that a road will be 100% paid for by Texas taxpayers and then handed over to a private corporation to gouge our citizens with oppressively high toll taxes at 75 cents a mile for a HALF CENTURY is a piracy of the public's assets. It is what Michelle Malkin said it is, corporate welfare. Texans oppose tolling existing roads because it's a double tax. How much more egregious when the road is 100% built with gas taxes as our existing roads are, then handed over to a private company in a sweetheart deal kept SECRET from the public, that will in-debt generations, heist private property and hand it to a private corporation for private gain, increase taxes on driving, increase our cost of goods, impede our freedom to travel, and ensure our free roads remain congested for our lifetimes. Texans are outraged by this, whether they’re residents of Irving or not, these are STATE highways and have implications across Texas!" notes an outraged Terri Hall, Founder of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom.
The vast majority of these proposed amendments represent some of the very worst, anti-taxpayer public policy we’ve ever seen,” fumes Hall, “it demonstrates a total lack of respect for the Sunset process that supposed to be about eliminating waste and duplication and increasing efficiency to save the taxpayers money -- keep the size of government in check.
“What do half of these pieces of legislation thrown in here have to do with reforming TxDOT? They don’t. Instead, the bill has become a vehicle for lawmakers to pig pile every controversial piece of legislation onto the proverbial legislative Christmas tree.”
The Sunset Committee Advisory Report said: “The Sunset review of the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) occurred against a backdrop of distrust and frustration with the Department and the demand for more transparency, accountability, and responsiveness. Many expressed concerns that TxDOT was “out of control,” advancing its own agenda against objections of both the Legislature and the public. Sunset staff found that this atmosphere of distrust permeated most of TxDOT’s actions and determined that it could not be an effective state transportation agency if trust and confidence were not restored. Significant changes are needed to begin this restoration; tweaking the status quo is simply not enough.”
Yet the current Sunset bill has a status quo Commission (the same five appointees of the Governor), and a status quo reporting structure for top management, along with the controversial, special interest design build contracts that eliminate, low bid competitive bidding.
“This coupled with a scathing 628 page management audit that revealed deep-seated, structural problems in every department division with TxDOT, it’s inexplicable that our legislators are essentially giving this agency a free pass to keep putting the screws to the taxpayers with their unpopular privatized toll road network that are rife with eminent domain abuse and a loss of sovereignty over Texas infrastructure that will cost Texans dearly to move about this state.
“The abuse of property rights, the punitive level of taxation, the reckless disregard for the public interest just to get a road built, and the special interest giveaways are simply staggering,” stated Hall.
“The betrayal of Texans who believe that the Trans Texas Corridor is dead (with the passage of HB 1201) will receive a rude awakening if these amendments that sell Texas to foreign companies, especially the TTC-69/I-69 projects, become law. We simply do not have the words to express our utter disgust with what the TxDOT sunset bill has devolved into.
“God help Texas if any one of these horrible amendments become law!”
TURF is urging Texans to contact their State Representatives to crush these special interest amendments and focus on fixing the highway department.
A comprehensive summary of the proposed pre-filed amendments appear below:
BILL ALERT
HB 2675
TxDOT Sunset Bill
Prepared by Texas TURF
(Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom)
__________________________________________________________________
In alphabetical order -
Alonzo Amendment # 821497
We are AGAINST this amendment because it would allow TxDOT to hire an “emerging fund manager” - we thought we’re supposed to be trimming staff, shouldn’t this have a fiscal note? Emerging Fund Manager includes “PRIVATE EQUITY FUND MANAGERS” [Sec 222.005 (b) (2)], which involves CDAs and public private partnerships (PPPs), which Texans vehemently oppose. TxDOT’s pension funds are already managed by Board of Trustees outside the agency. TxDOT needs to get out “high finance” and back to building the best roads in the nation. If TxDOT is given this authority, it’s all but guaranteed they’ll hire people.
Alonzo Amendment # 821500
We’d like this amendment CHANGED. When a person’s private property is seized forcibly using eminent domain for a certain public use, they should have a right to purchase their land back, not have the government donate it to someone else, even it’s a charitable cause. Texans fought for this provision in SB 18. We’d like this to be amended to say only AFTER the original landowner is offered the ability to repurchase his/her land and they decline.
Anchia Amendment # 821536
We OPPOSE this amendment. This amendment is a version of HB 1105. The “Complete Streets Policy” is tied to the implementation of the controversial UN Agenda 21 policy, which is anti-car, anti-private property ownership, and attempts to dictate where you can live, how you can live and travel, etc. “Walkable Communities” is a policy initiative tied to Agenda 21‘s Sustainable Development objectives which include: abolishing private property and increasing restrictions on mobility, including public private partnerships.
"Walkable Communities" and "Context Sensitive Solutions" sound innocuous, but according to the fiscal note, it would MANDATE compliance by MPOs and any entity using federal and state funds. There’s already been an example in San Antonio where they took away two lanes open to cars and dedicated them to bikes only, clogging a road that didn’t used to have congestion.
We firmly believe that we need to make our roads safe and friendly to all who need to use them, including pedestrians and cyclists. We need sidewalks where appropriate to make mobility available for EVERYONE, but TxDOT is already required to consider ALL users and modes in its planning so its really redundant.
The bill mandates that road money be taken from roads and given to other modes and mandates compliance. The fiscal note on the bill, HB 1105, says the cost to local governments to implement could be substantial: “Costs may be significant.”
Farrar Amendment # 821541
Restores Sunset Recommendation of a single appointed Commissioner. We want ELECTED leadership...our fear is another ‘Ric Williamson’ type would be appointed!
Gallego Amendment # 821477
We are OPPOSED to ANY gas taxes or registration fees going to SUBSIDIZE an RMA’s toll roads. A well-conceived toll road would be funded by toll revenue bonds where the risk lies of default lies with private bond investors, not taxpayers, and that would pay for itself with the projected toll users without public subsidies. Plus, a vote for this amendment is a vote for a tax hike when Texans can least afford it.
Harper-Brown Amendment # 821556 & McClendon Amendment # 821508
We SUPPORT the CFO reporting to someone other than the Exec Dir. The people of Texas have spoken loudly that they want ELECTED leadership at TxDOT. We’d like the CFO to report to ELECTED Commissioners!
Harper-Brown Amendment # 821557
We are AGAINST this amendment, because we support allocating all of TxDOT’s revenue by formula. Formula funding would go a LONG way in putting objective standards in place for funding allocations to each district, taking the politics out of which projects get built and which ones don’t.
RED ALERT
Harper-Brown Amendment # 821558
We are VEHEMENTLY AGAINST this amendment. We DO NOT support ANY of these controversial CDAs/PPPs that would privatize and toll our TX public roads and eliminate low bid, competitive bidding and replace it with "best value" bidding. The inclusion of CDAs in last session’s Sunset bill is what caused a grassroots revolt to KILL THE BILL!
Particularly with Hwy 183, TxDOT has telegraphed in a Statesman article that this project will be 100% paid for with ALL Texans’ gas taxes (this is NOT a ‘local’ issue when it uses ALL Texans money) then handed to a private concessionaire to be a toll collector for the next 50 years on a road that’s PAID FOR!
Read it here and scroll to the bottom of the story.
The fact that a road will be 100% paid for by Texas taxpayers and then handed over to a private corporation to gouge our citizens with oppressively high toll taxes at 75 cents a mile for a HALF CENTURY is a piracy of the public's assets. It is what Michelle Malkin said it is corporate welfare. Texans oppose tolling existing roads because it's a double tax. How much more egregious when the road is 100% built with gas taxes as our existing roads are, then handed over to a private company in a sweetheart deal kept SECRET from the public, that will in-debt generations, heist private property and hand it to a private corporation for private gain, increase taxes on driving, increase our cost of goods, impede our freedom to travel, and ensure our free roads remain congested for our lifetimes. Texans are outraged by this, whether they’re residents of Irving or not, these are STATE highways and have implications across Texas!
Harper-Brown Amendment # 821559
We are AGAINST this amendment. We encourage an amendment to this amendment that strikes P. 4 Line 25 thru P. 5 Line 2.
At a time of extreme fiscal austerity, the LAST thing we need to be doing is allowing the Department to hire “consultants” on CDAs/PPPs and managing debt with high finance (‘innovative financing’), which in reality means risky, multi-leveraging schemes that caused the subprime mortgage crisis. Shouldn’t this draw a fiscal note on the bill?
Harper-Brown Amendment # 821562
We are AGAINST this amendment. We encourage an amendment to STRIKE SECTION 25 from the bill entirely. This has no business being in a sunset “reform” bill.
While this amendment is an improvement to carte blanche design-build authority, ANY design-build authority is a taxpayer rip-off! The payment to losing bidders, called a ‘stipend’ is reason enough to STRIKE design build from this bill!
We wouldn’t need the cost of all the “independent” inspections and engineers if we used a traditional design-bid-build procurement. This should draw a FISCAL NOTE!
Design build contracts eliminate low bid, competitive bidding and replace with "best value" bidding that is rife with abuse, favoritism, and cronyism (costs taxpayers more for public works projects built using these procurement methods, another industry giveaway). Though it removes a step in the bidding process (the design and the construction bid get combined), it costs taxpayers more and doesn't necessarily save time. These contracts are very controversial and since there's no fixed design done at the time of the bidding (no hard bid, very preliminary design and all the bidders may submit different designs so you're not comparing apples to apples), you don't even discuss price until after the developer is chosen and THEN the developer finishes the design (and the private entities own the design). So the contracts are initially awarded based on intangibles, not price, which tends to open up the process to favoritism and squeeze out the little guy.
Harper-Brown Amendment # 821564
We SUPPORT anything that gives teeth to the Inspector General and that gives them more independence from the agency they watchdog.
Harper-Brown Amendment # 821566
We OPPOSE this amendment since it relates to CDAs/PPPs the BUREACRACY, punitive levels of TAXATION, and LOSS OF SOVEREIGNTY they create. This bill is quickly becoming more about CDAs and toll roads than fixing this broken agency! It’s broken in large part due to the CDAs and toll projects!
We wouldn’t need this section of the bill if you KEEP THE BAN ON CDAs/PPPs in place! Look at the bureaucracy, time, and legal wrangling we’re creating by all the review of, negotiation of, collection of, and the allocation of TOLL MONEY and handing our PUBLIC ROADS over to private entities.
Harper-Brown Amendment # 821563, McClendon Amendment # 821506, & Pickett Amendment # 821520
We SUPPORT this amendment. The CFO should be a CPA, because CPA have to abide by a certain code of ethics. If there’s anything we need more of in state government, it’s ETHICS, particularly when it comes to the power over the purse! The McClendon Amendment standards for the internal auditor position, which is also needed.
Kolkhorst Amendment # 821530
We SUPPORT this amendment (it appears the numbering may be off, so if this doesn’t replace Section 201.210 and prohibit ALL federal lobbying, we encourage an amendment to this amendment to STRIKE P. 8 lines 8 & 9 altogether). The bill as written opens up a new loophole that weakens the restrictions on lobbying (this language is added and not currently in Chapter 556: (2) communicate with officers and employees of the federal government in pursuit of federal appropriations and programs. While we understand the need to get every penny of federal money back in Texas, it is NOT the role of our highway department, but rather of legislators to do that. When we've seen TxDOT's $7-9 million PR campaign include the hiring of registered lobbyists (to the tune of $110,000/month!) both to lobby state and federal officials and seen its participation in the Transportation Transformation (T2) lobby group to lobby for PPPs and lax restrictions on them, and TxDOT's lobbying for the TTC and tolling existing interstates (which Texans overwhelmingly oppose), we already know what TxDOT will do with this new language. It'll continue its lobbying full force using taxpayer money to lobby against the taxpayer! Considering TTC-69 will require federal dollars to build, TxDOT could use this money to lobby for yet another version of a Trans Texas Corridor style road using taxpayer money under the guise of pursuing federal appropriations. In short, they can't be trusted with this new authority. It will open up the state to further litigation.
Kolkhorst Amendment # 821537
We SUPPORT this amendment. We totally oppose all CDAs/PPPs, but some still linger out there from prior legislation, and rather than charge taxpayers for the legal time to review these contracts, make the private entities pay. In HB 1, the Attorney General’s office requested 15,000 hours of legal time per year at a cost of $1 million to review CDAs. This is what CDAs reap. Millions in taxpayer money and resources down the drain.
Kolkhorst Amendment # 821539
We SUPPORT this amendment. Again, we OPPOSE all CDAs/PPPs but some still linger, so if they’re such a good deal, an ELECTED OFFICIAL should sign-off on them and certify the contract as a means of ensuring it’s in the public’s best interest.
Kolkhorst Amendment # 821540
We SUPPORT this amendment. “Programs” is too broad and could encompass lobbying for: toll roads, CDAs/PPPs, a Trans Texas Corridor version of I-69, I-10 and other highways in the Corridors of the Future program that will privatize and toll those interstates, toll credits, TIFIA loans and federal PABs that subsidize PPPs all in the name of a federal “program.”
RED ALERT
Lavender Amendment # 821535
We VEHEMENTLY OPPOSE this amendment and ANY CDA, but especially one that’s the Trans Texas Corridor resurrected! So much for the repeal of the Trans Texas Corridor...it’s B-A-A-C-K! This is a part of what was formerly known as Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69, now using the more innocuous I-69 title. More than 28,000 Texans went on record opposing TTC-69 and they want NO PART OF IT, largely due to the fact it will take Texans’ private property in some families for generations and hand it over to a private, foreign corporation for a HALF CENTURY in one of these controversial SECRET sweetheart deals (with public subsidies, profit guarantees, non-compete agreements, that eliminate low bid, competitive bidding and replace with "best value" bidding, and charge extremely high toll rates)! Say ‘NO’ to this amendment!
Lucio Amendment # 821515
We OPPOSE this amendment to raise the gas tax in one of the most economically distressed areas of our state, especially not when they’re paying nearly $4/ gallon already. In light of many of the other transportation bills effecting this region, this increase will be used to borrow money to subsidize toll roads, which they cannot afford to take.
RED ALERT
Lucio Amendment # 821516
We VEHEMENTLY OPPOSE this amendment and ANY CDA, but especially one that’s the Trans Texas Corridor resurrected! So much for the repeal of the Trans Texas Corridor...it’s B-A-A-C-K! This is a part of what was formerly known as Trans Texas Corridor TTC-69, now using the more innocuous I-69 title. More than 28,000 Texans went on record opposing TTC-69 and they want NO PART OF IT, largely due to the fact it will take Texans’ private property in some families for generations and hand it over to a private, foreign corporation for a HALF CENTURY in one of these controversial SECRET sweetheart deals (with public subsidies, profit guarantees, non-compete agreements, that eliminate low bid, competitive bidding and replace with "best value" bidding, and charge extremely high toll rates)! A CDA with a Spain-based company ACS and partner Zachry already expired for several of these projects, now these private interests are back wanting YOU to sell Texas to private corporations who will stick it to Texans with oppressive toll taxes, few can afford to pay. Say ‘NO’ to this amendment!
Martinez Amendment # 821471
We SUPPORT this amendment and anything that would increase transparency, especially as it pertains to private contractors.
McClendon Amendment # 821504
We wholeheartedly SUPPORT a single ELECTED Commissioner! This is what the people of Texas flooded the Sunset Committee asking for -- a single point of accountability that answers DIRECTLY to the PEOPLE of Texas!
McClendon Amendment # 821505
We SUPPORT this amendment. TURF sued TxDOT over it’s illegal lobbying and PR campaign promoting toll roads, PPPs, and the Trans Texas Corridor on the taxpayers’ dime. This bill will make explicit where the line between advertising TollTags/toll roads and seeking to change public opinion lies.
McClendon Amendment # 821507
We SUPPORT this amendment. TxDOT should NEVER be given any wiggle room on lobbying to influence legislation.
McClendon Amendment # 821509
We SUPPORT this amendment since it increases the financial transparency of the agency.
RED ALERT
Parker Amendment # 821301
We VEHEMENTLY OPPOSE this amendment to sell-off a portion of the primary interstate highway in Texas, I-35, to a private, foreign company in a sweetheart deal (with public subsidies, profit guarantees, non-compete agreements, that eliminate low bid, competitive bidding and replace with "best value" bidding, and charge extremely high toll rates).
The inclusion of controversial CDAs in last session’s Sunset bill is what caused a grassroots revolt to KILL THE BILL!
Texas taxpayers DO NOT want their public roads they rely for daily living handed over to a private corporation to gouge our citizens with oppressively high toll taxes at 75 cents a mile for a HALF CENTURY! It’s a piracy of the public's assets. It is what Michelle Malkin said it is, corporate welfare. These are sweetheart deals kept SECRET from the public, that will in-debt generations, heist private property and hand it to a private corporation for private gain, increase taxes on driving, increase our cost of goods, impede our freedom to travel, and ensure our free roads remain congested for our lifetimes. Texans are outraged by this, whether they’re residents of DFW or not, these are STATE highways, using ALL Texans’ money as subsidies, and have implications across Texas!
Paxton Amendment # 821533
We SUPPORT this amendment and anything that will bring greater transparency to these toll road bureaucracies!
RED ALERT
Phillips Amendment # 821519
We VEHEMENTLY OPPOSE this amendment! This is HB 2255 with 4 additional CDA projects added on. This sells off eleven TX roads to private entities in controversial public private partnerships (PPPs) that eliminate competitive bidding and, in the case of the North Tarrant Express, give the winning private consortium development rights over all future segments (again without competitive bidding). These are sweetheart deals that cost taxpayers punitive toll rates of 75 cents PER MILE (like adding $15 to every gallon of gas you buy). The deals are kept SECRET from the public and elected officials (except the Attorney General), are propped up with massive amounts of public money, have profit guarantees, put the taxpayers on the hook for the losses, contain non-competes that guarantee congestion on free roads, and grant monopolies for a half century at a time!
These are NOT local projects or local decisions as they impact the entire state due to the eminent domain for private gain, public subsidies, and loss of sovereignty over our public infrastructure. With two Committees on State Sovereignty this session, are legislators really going to hand control over Texas roads to foreign toll operators?
RED ALERT
Phillips Amendment # 821518
We OPPOSE this amendment. This is HB 3218 and could be dubbed the "Double Tax & Toxic Debt" Bank Loan Act. This is like building roads with credit cards! It would allow ANY source of revenue given to TxDOT (including gas taxes, general revenue, borrowed money -- Prop 12, Prop 14, Texas Mobility Funds, etc.) to be used to grant loans for toll projects, including loaning our taxpayer money to PRIVATE ENTITIES. In fact, this bill is for the explicit purpose of giving the State Infrastructure Bank the ability to loan money to toll entities as subsidies to prop-up toll projects, including as a means to guarantee loans (their toxic debt).
It's a government recycling program -- use OUR money to lend to private companies to build toll roads that can't pay for themselves, then require us, the taxpayers, to pay it back through tolls, with interest! Conservative Timothy Carney called the idea of a Federal Infrastructure Bank ‘corporate welfare’ for good reason.
In the special session in July 2009, the grassroots rose up to oppose ANY Prop 12 funds from being used to prop-up toll projects that can't pay for themselves (which is a DOUBLE TAX) and they succeeded. This would trample on the people's wishes and change the law to allow DOUBLE TAXATION and borrowed money to be used to secure MORE borrowed money (like using a credit card to pay-off other debt), the same risky lending schemes that brought about the sub-prime mortgage crisis and toxic debt that required a taxpayer bailout of Wall Street.
RED ALERT
Phillips Amendment # 821517
We OPPOSE this amendment. This is HB 2574 granting Design-Build CDA authority to RMAs which gives these toll entities authority to use design build contracts that also eliminate low bid, competitive bidding and replace with "best value" bidding that is rife with abuse, favoritism, and cronyism (costs taxpayers more for public works projects built using these procurement methods, another industry giveaway).
These contracts are very controversial and since there’s no fixed design done at the time of the bidding (no hard bid, all the bidders may submit different designs so you’re not comparing apples to apples), you don’t even discuss price until after the developer is chosen and THEN the developer finishes the design (and the private entities own the design, if the governmental entity decides not to use that team, they pay the private entity for their design, versus TxDOT doing the engineering and owning the design). They also receive a payment for losing the bid, called a “stipend.” This is a slush fund in itself! So the contracts are initially awarded based on intangibles, not price which tends to open up the process to favoritism and squeeze out the little guy.
Pickett Amendment #821523
This would take a few of the appointees out of the Governor’s hands, but the people have made it clear they want ELECTED leadership, not more appointees.
Pickett Amendment # 821524
We like Lines 13-17 which brings much needed fiscal sanity to the lettings, but want to STRIKE P. 1 Lines 27-29 and P. 2 Lines 1-4.
Pickett Amendment # 821525
We OPPOSE this amendment. This is HB 2802 to authorize the use of the Texas Mobility Fund as a revolving fund (code for ‘multi-leveraging’) and to allow Prop 14 and Prop 12 bonds to be used as loans. Revolving fund means to use borrowed money to pay back other borrowed money. Ditto for Prop 12 and Prop 14 money being used as loans since those funds are also BORROWED. This multi-leveraging is risky and is the same scheme that caused the subprime mortgage crisis.
In the bill analysis, it even states that the problem they’re trying to fix is the “instability in the credit markets making it difficult for public toll entities to get financing” and to “mitigate certain project financial risks.” So the taxpayers will be taking on the risk and have their money used to prop-up the toxic debt of toll authorities that the private sector won’t touch (invest in). This bill also allows these monies to be deposited into the State Infrastructure Bank. If HB 3218 passes along with this bill, that means yet more taxpayer money will go to lend money to private corporations. Public money for private profits. Conservative Timothy Carney called the idea of a Federal Infrastructure Bank ‘corporate welfare’ for this reason.
Pickett Amendment # 821568
Transportation Reinvestment Zones stated goal is to redevelop property. Considering the fierce love Texans have for their land and property rights and that most Texans struggle to keep up with their ever increasing property tax bill as it is, and that TRZs represent roads for economic development and ever increasing property tax bills, we OPPOSE this amendment.
Also, in light of HB 1112 passing, TRZ funds can be used to prop-up loser RMA toll projects that can’t pay for themselves. So now we’re using property taxes to subsidize toll roads. Where will this punitive double and triple taxation end?
RED ALERT
Smith Amendment # 821512
We OPPOSE this amendment and ANY design-build contracts. Design build contracts also eliminate low bid, competitive bidding and replace with "best value" bidding that is rife with abuse, favoritism, and cronyism (costs taxpayers more for public works projects built using these procurement methods, another industry giveaway).
These contracts are very controversial and since there’s no fixed design done at the time of the bidding (no hard bid, all the bidders may submit different designs so you’re not comparing apples to apples), you don’t even discuss price until after the developer is chosen and THEN the developer finishes the design (and the private entities own the design, if the governmental entity decides not to use that team, they pay the private entity for their design, versus TxDOT doing the engineering and owning the design). They also receive a payment for losing the bid, called a “stipend.” This is a slush fund in itself! So the contracts are initially awarded based on intangibles, not price which tends to open up the process to favoritism and squeeze out the little guy.
Veasey Amendment # 821468
We SUPPORT this amendment to allow the Legislature to appoint a vacancy of a Transportation Commissioner.
Texas TURF is a non-partisan, grassroots, all-volunteer group defending Texans’ concerns with toll road policy, Trans Texas Corridor-style projects like public private partnerships, and eminent domain abuses. TURF promotes non-toll transportation solutions.