07.16.09
It’s much easier to raise tolls than taxes
Check out what happened in North Texas today, NTTA OKs toll increase of 32%.
The toll increase is in keeping with the Regional Transportation Council’s policy on local tolling. The specifics call for peak tolls of up to 17 cents a mile and off-peak of 12.5 cents a mile, for an average of 14.5 cents.
In case you were wondering NTTA stands for North Texas Tollway Authority. Which is a run by a 9 member Board of Directors – appointed by the Governor, and unaccountable to the voters. Which is like this 7 member unaccountable Board of Directors.
The best part of this story comes later in the article, North Texas Tollway Authority OKs rate hike.
Some board members also initially seemed opposed to wording in the new rate policy that now sets an automatic toll rate increase every two years. Every two years from now on, rates will jump nearly 6 percent, without the need for a board vote. (Emphasis added).
The increase is necessary, CFO Janice Davis said, because NTTA’s revenues are no longer enough to meet obligations to creditors to whom NTTA owes about $6 billion. Bond convenants require NTTA revenues to be at least 1.5 times its debt payments. Without the increases, the agency would likely not meet that obligation in the next couple years.
The automatic increases are necessary, too, or else NTTA’s ability to borrow more money to build new roads will be constrained, staff and financial advisors said. Previously, toll rates were reviewed only every five years.
NTTA’s financial squeeze is due to a combination of factors: while total traffic numbers are up, they are lower than expected; collections from drivers without toll tags have been less successful than expected; and fewer drivers on the new Sam Rayburn Tollway have signed up for toll tags.
Wow, now tolls will go up every two years and even the unaccountable board members don’t even have to vote for it.