Mayes Middleton - State Senator, District 11 Joins Houston Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We set up tolls to build roads, then they're maintaining roads.
There's supposed to be a sunset at some point, isn't
there on toll roads. Get a whole bunch of those. Yeah,
the sun never sets on a former governor. Mm hmmm,
stay's editor. May's Middleton joins, US senator, tell me about
this section of two eighty eight. What's the deal on this?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Hey, I appreciate you'll have me on today. So, you know,
the only thing worse than taxation is double taxation. And
you know tex DOT is spending about one point seven
billion dollars to buy a section of the two eighty
eight toll road, and you know, that's actually less than
it would cost to build them build that road, and

(00:39):
that's a good deal. But unfortunately they have no plans
to take the tolls off of it, which that's where
the double taxation and double pay issue for taxpayers comes in.
So you know, that's a lot of money, one point
seven billion dollars, and uh, there's no concrete plan that
they've got to take the tolls off that road. So

(01:00):
I sent a letter to the chairman of the Texas
Department of Transportation asking and really demanding that they do
that and taxpayers not be forced to pay for the
same road two times.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
How can you cancel it? I mean you're demanding it,
but what do they say?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
No, So so far they haven't taken any action on it.
But look, we need to look at toll road reform
legislation next session. I mean, this is something that's been
important to me for a long time because people are
struggling to pay the tolls, Like on this particular section,
they have a like a flex toll. Sometimes it's three dollars,
sometimes it's thirteen. But then you look at what happens

(01:37):
if you don't pay it. I mean, everybody has gotten
that penalty in the mail right where there's a fine
that's more than the toll itself, and that's putting a
lot of hard working families underwater. You know, there was
an article in the paper the other day that up
to two hundred and twenty six thousand car registrations were
blocked in North Texas for late payment or non payment

(02:00):
of tolls, and they can actually impound your car and
there's actually a criminal penalty they can levy on you.
So I mean this is a basic, not just quality
of life issue, but pro tax payer issue. You know,
we got to make sure that people can afford to
drive to work and have their vehicle and access to it,
because you could lose all of those things if you

(02:21):
don't pay your tolls and if you miss a payment,
or your credit card register, your credit card expires, you know,
or something happens with your automatic billing. I mean, these
are innocent mistakes that could lead to your loss of
your ability to drive to work.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
You know. I guess, I guess it's something we can't have.
I guess, Senator. The excuse for building toll roads always was, well,
we can. Otherwise we wouldn't be able to afford to
build the road. So this way we can. We can
because we have all these folks moving here and we have,
you know, traffic congestion, and this will alleviate congestion. And
that was always the reason for doing it. If under
normal circumstances, based on gasoline taxes, which are supposed to

(02:58):
pay for roads, can tex is a board to keep
up with the infrastructure without charging on toll roads.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Yeah, So on twenty seventeen, tech Stop made a decision
to not build new toll roads. So we're already on
that path right now. And look, I mean you're paying
gas tax, You're already paying for this when you buy
a new vehicle, you're paying sales tax on a new car.
Also the severance tax, which is the oil and gas
tax that funds a significant portion of our roads. And

(03:28):
these are all things paid for by the taxpayer. So unfortunately,
when you have to pay a toll after all of that,
it's a double taxation issue. And that's why this is
such a problem, especially when they're spending one point seven
billion dollars on this section at twenty eight.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
Yeah, exactly. I've used that section of the toll road
and it really makes a difference. And if you open
that up so everyone can use it, it would certainly
help the build up of traffic.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
I mean, you think about this too, where we've seen
it with the Harris County Toll Road Authority. They're diverting
toll road money to other purposes, right, So they've spent
them on hike and bike trails, right, They're taking money
out of the Harris County Toll roun Authority. And these
are roads that are already paid off. Like, the whole
point of the tolls was to build the roads. What
happens when the road is paid off. Well, they're keeping

(04:16):
the tolls on it. I mean that is a huge
problem because the whole purpose of it was to get
the road built to begin with, and now that purpose
is being abused and hard working Texans are being double tapped.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Well, thank you for the fight. Yep, sure do appreciate Senator,
thanks for joining us this morning. State Senator May's Middleton
at seven twenty seven