"Lawmakers and others see TxDOT as an agent of Gov. Rick Perry's campaign to add toll roads throughout Texas."

Audit: TxDOT in need of an overhaul

5/29/10

By MICHAEL A. LINDENBERGER
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2010

The Texas Department of Transportation should significantly alter its leadership structure, reshuffle its executive ranks and reduce the role engineers play in leading the sprawling agency.

Those are among the recommendations of a 628-page audit of the department's management and structure by accounting firm Grant Thornton.

Much of the audit focuses on the leadership of the department, which has been under fire in Austin for years, often because lawmakers and others see it as an agent of Gov. Rick Perry's campaign to add toll roads throughout Texas.

Most criticism, however, was aimed at the long-tenured executives who run the agency day-to-day, not the five commissioners Perry has appointed to oversee the agency.

The audit notes that some of the most fundamental challenges faced by the department are an unsteady funding stream and soaring costs associated with road-building.

Texas cities are among the fastest-growing in America, and the state maintains more miles of highways than any other – an expensive combination.

But the report also states that a lack of trust by lawmakers and the public has played a critical role in preventing the agency from getting higher appropriations.

Some simply don't believe the agency needs what it says it needs. Others, the audit said, say that until the department wins that trust back, it shouldn't be given more money to spend – even if it clearly needs it.

The Transportation Department ordered the audit early last year while it was under the microscope of the Legislature's Sunset Advisory Commission. That scrutiny will continue in 2011.

The audit recommends that the department:

• Significantly change its leadership structure, creating new executive positions that would answer to the executive director. These jobs should not be automatically reserved for current members of the administration, the audit says.

• Lessen its focus on engineering among its top leadership and throughout the agency. Engineers have been placed in non-engineering roles, making it hard for non-engineers "to be heard" no matter how strong their relevant, non-engineering expertise might be.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White was quick to cite the audit as proof that Perry has failed to develop a long-term transportation policy for the state.Perry's office responded that White hasn't offered any transportation ideas.

Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, said the audit is more reason to remake the agency from the ground up.

"It's time to strip TxDOT back to the engine block and rebuild it as an agency that can effectively serve Texas in this century," Watson said.

© 2010 Dallas Morning News: www.dallasnews.com

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"When it comes to necessary reforms, there always seems to be a fight."

Major audit: TxDOT must change its 'singular, deeply entrenched culture'

5/27/10

Michael Lindenberger
The Dallas Morning News
Copyright 2010

The Texas Department of Transportation should significantly alter its leadership structure, reshuffle its executive ranks and reduce the role engineers play in leading the sprawling agency.

That's according to a new -- and at 628 pages, exhaustive -- audit of its management and structure by the accounting firm Grant Thornton. The audit, available in full here, was released Wednesday by the department after the accounting firm revealed its findings.

I am still working through the details, and there are a lot of them. But key recommendations from the audit focus strongly on the nature of the leadership of the department, which has been under fire in Austin and elsewhere for years, often because of resentment by lawmakers and others that see it as a tool of Gov. Rick Perry's campaign to add toll roads throughout Texas.

The audit notes that one of the most fundamental challenges faced by the department is an unsteady funding stream, and soaring costs associated with its monumental responsibilities. Texas cities are among the fastest-growing in America, and the state maintains more miles of highways than any other -- an expensive combination.

But the report also states that a lack of trust by lawmakers and members of the public has played a critical role in preventing the agency from getting higher appropriations. Some simply don't believe the agency needs what it says it needs. Others, the audit stated, say that until TxDOT wins that trust back, many stakeholders feel it shouldn't be given more money to spend -- even if it clearly needs it.

Other big recommendations urge TxDOT to:

Fundamentally change its culture.

TxDOT has a singular, deeply entrenched culture that reflects 93 years of service dedicated to providing top notch transportation infrastructure to the State of Texas. This culture, and the ways in which the organization is led and managed, are fundamental considerations in the MOR as they affect every aspect of TxDOT performance. The unifying thread through all the MOR observations and recommendations is the way in which leadership and management practices and cultural norms affect TxDOT behavior and efficacy. Changes in this area are the essential underpinning to achieving meaningful improvements in the areas of effectiveness, efficiency, communications and transparency.

Significantly change its leadership structure. It recommends that TxDOT create three executive positions that would answer to the executive director -- chief administration officer, chief operations officer, and chief financial officer. These jobs would be new -- even if, in the case of the CFO, they exist in some form today, and should not be automatically reserved for members of the executive now employed, the audit says.

Lessen its focus on engineering among its top leadership, and indeed throughout the agency. Currently, engineering expertise -- even a license -- seems to be the only coin of the realm that carries any value. That has meant putting engineers in non-engineering roles, just to keep them aboard, and making it harder for non-engineers "to be heard" no matter how strong their relevant, non-engineering expertise might be.

Make the aides to the five TxDOT commissioners who oversee the agency answer to the commissioners, not to the executive director. The report says that has created a conflict of interest. If the commissioners are to oversee the agency, they deserve unbiased and unfettered advice from their administrative assistants.

Divide the government relations staff and the communications staff. A few years ago, communications folks -- spokesman and others -- were merged under a new department led by Colby Chase, who had represented the department's interests in Washington previously. The report says that has helped lead to TxDOT's image as an overly political entity, and the staff of about 50 full-time workers should be divided once again.

Too little metrics, means it's hard to assess TxDOT's work. Is TxDOT doing good work? Efficiently? Who knows, says the audit.

Clearly TxDOT employees are accomplishing a great deal of work. However, in the absence of relevant metrics, performance reporting, management disciplines and controls - deployed across the organization - it isn't possible to determine whether work is being done effectively or efficiently.

There is much more in the audit, and I'm not yet through with it. A lot of the really hard stuff will deal with how centralized the agency's operations should be -- an issue sure to touch soft spots within TxDOT, given its long history of leaving much authority in the hands of its district engineers -- and how to better coordinate its statewide planning efforts.

Meanwhile, the issue is already political, of course. No surprise since even on its own organization chart, TxDOT lists the Governor at the top of its pyramid of power, over the five commissioners he has appointed to lead the agency.

Gubernatorial candidate Bill White attacked Gov. Rick Perry for having failed to develop a long-term transportation policy, and cited the audit as proof.

Sen. Kirk Watson, D-Austin, released a statement Wednesday night saying the report is more reason to remake the agency from the ground up.

"This report reveals very little that those of us who deal with TxDOT regularly didn't already know. When it comes to necessary reforms, there always seems to be a fight, probably because of the culture and leadership issues described in the report," Senator Watson said. "It's time to strip TxDOT back to the engine block and rebuild it as an agency that can effectively serve Texas in this century. My experience working with Chair (Deirdre) Delisi, and our conversations regarding these issues, lead me to believe she intends to begin this significant, essential process."

TxDOT ordered the audit early last year, as it was under the microscope of the Sunset Review Commission of the Legislature. It will be back under that same microscope in 2011, and in that sense the audit is its chance to get out from under the heavy boots of lawmakers before the latter insist on changes of their own.

Of course that will depend on how the agency responds to the challenging assessments contained within its covers. We'll know more about its approach June 8, at 9 a.m. at a specially called meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission.

© 2010 Dallas Morning News: www.dallasnews.com

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"By going into debt to build roads, TxDOT ended up with less money for new roads than if it had just used gasoline tax money."

The TxDOT management audit

5/27/10

Paul Burka
Texas Monthly
Copyright 2010

The consultant’s report, released yesterday, is now available online. Here are a couple of its salient observations:

TxDOT funding situation

At present, State Highway Fund revenues are not as stable as in previous years, nor are they continuing to increase at the same pace as in the past. In addition, from 2005 through 2007, TxDOT used a combination of State Highway Fund revenues and bond funding for operations and capital investments. During this period their expenditures for these areas outpaced revenues, resulting in TxDOT using approximately $700 million of reserves to pay for operating and project expenses during this period. This resulted in two issues.

First, when TxDOT bumped up spending through the use of bond funding, baseline expectations for TxDOT spending levels in any given year were expanded public transportation facilities and systems including the issuance of bonds for raised both inside and outside the organization, even though that approach was not sustainable and represented a marked deviation from historical spending levels.

Second, TxDOT incurred a significant debt service burden associated with the bonds it issued – and that servicing reduces the availability of General Revenue and Fund 6 dollars for TxDOT to use for operations and new projects. [In other words, the bondholders had to be paid from the funds--general revenue and Fund 6--that were being used to pay for the projects.] The end effect is that TxDOT’s available budget (for maintenance, new projects, etc.) is effectively lower than it would have been before the bond funding was issued. At the same time, maintenance requirements are increasing as a result of having increased the size of the highway system (every new road brought into the system must be maintained).

* * * *

My comments:

In other words, the Legislature acted in a fiscally irresponsible manner when it issued several billion dollars in bonds to pay for road projects. By going into debt to build roads, TxDOT ended up with less money for new roads than if it had just used gasoline tax money.

This is what happens when lawmakers spurn the pay-as-you-go principle. This is not fiscal conservatism. This is spending beyond your means. You can’t blame TxDOT. The blame belongs with the Legislature and in particular the leadership at the time, Dewhurst and Craddick. And with the voters, who approved the bonds. (I am proud to say that I voted against them.)

I have said this before and I will say it again: the responsible thing to do was to raise the gasoline “user fee.” It has its deficiencies as a revenue-raiser, most notably that that the “fee” is levied on a per-gallon basis, and greater fuel efficiency means that fewer gallons of gasoline are being consumed. Even so, it is the logical source of more dollars for transportation.

One of the points that the “Management and Organizational Review” (MOR) makes is that the culture of TxDOT is often counterproductive:

The challenge

Conversations with TxDOT’s senior leaders reveal a deep-seated belief that TxDOT is doing all the right things and that criticisms leveled against the organization will decline when TxDOT is better able to demonstrate to people how right the organization is. While this belief might be understandable – in context of the organization’s culture and people’s individual commitments to the work they are doing – it is counter to meaningful self-examination and redirection of the organization.

This does not mean that leaders in the organization are not initiating change. Rather, it means that the way change is undertaken and the nature of the changes undertaken are driven out of the long-standing viewpoints and operating models.

Meaningful adjustment in TxDOT cannot occur without leaders who understand and accept that the organization’s performance and management is not meeting expectations. TxDOT requires leaders who truly believe that the world has changed and that TxDOT also must change (emphasis added). The leadership also must conceptualize what that future organization should look like and should do, and must successfully motivate staff to go that direction. Furthermore, the leadership needs to bring management discipline to the organization in ways that may go counter to the existing culture and to their own perceptions of their roles and value in the organization.

For the link to the complete report, click HERE.

© 2010 Texas Monthly: www.texasmonthly.com

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"Transportation officials were so distracted by Perry's unpopular push for toll roads and the TTC that they ignored needs of local communities..."

Demo candidate slams Perry over transportation

5/26/10

Associated Press
Copyright 2010

SAN ANTONIO — The Texas Democratic candidate for governor is accusing GOP incumbent Rick Perry of mismanaging the state's transportation money and hurting communities.

Bill White held a news conference in San Antonio on Wednesday after meeting with local officials about the region's transportation needs.

White says transportation officials were so distracted by Perry's unpopular push for toll roads and the Trans Texas Corridor that they ignored needs of local communities and wasted money.

The former Houston mayor says the state needs a comprehensive plan built from the "bottom up."

Perry campaign spokesman Mark Miner says White's criticisms are "untrue." Miner says, in the last decade, more miles of [toll] roads have been built in Texas than in any other state.

© 2010 The Associated Press: www.ap.org

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"My public questions whether all that gas tax money goes to projects they can use."

Developer offers scaled-back I-35W plan for north Fort Worth

5/26/10

By GORDON DICKSON
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Copyright 2010

AUSTIN -- A developer who wants to rebuild 10 miles of Interstate 35W in north Fort Worth has offered a scaled-back, less expensive version of a plan submitted to the state last week, but it would provide fewer benefits to motorists who didn't want to pay tolls.

The result could mean some, but not all, left-lane exits would be eliminated at the I-35W/Loop 820 interchange. And, a proposal to add continuous frontage roads would be pushed back until a later phase, officials said.

Even so, state officials gave an informal thumbs-up Wednesday to the plan, saying they like the concept because it requires a contribution of $173.8 million in public money, about 40 percent less than an earlier version that required $287.5 million in state funds.

State officials are trying to cut costs during tough budget times, while relieving gridlock on the state's most congested roadways.

"Clearly, we have to take care of the economic engines that run the state," Texas Transportation Commissioner Ned Holmes of Houston said during a workshop Wednesday, where the I-35W corridor in Tarrant County was described as a key corridor for job growth and shipping.

Earlier traffic relief

The developer, North Tarrant Express Mobility Partners, is offering to tear down and rebuild I-35W from Interstate 30 near downtown Fort Worth to North Tarrant Parkway near Alliance Airport. Existing nontoll lanes would be rebuilt -- three lanes in each direction from I-30 to 28th Street and two lanes in each direction from 28th Street to North Tarrant Parkway -- and two toll lanes would be added in each direction.

All told, it would be $2.7 billion worth of work, including up to $1.3 billion in developer construction costs plus all necessary maintenance and operations over 52 years, said Bob Brown, a state official. During that period, the developer would be allowed to collect revenue on the toll lanes and keep any profits they could squeeze from the road.

NTE Mobility Partners, which is headed by the U.S. arm of Spanish firm Cintra, has said that if negotiations with the Texas Department of Transportation during the next several months are successful, they can have the improvements completed by June 30, 2017, which means that motorists would see traffic relief at least 10 years earlier than if the road was built as a traditional freeway.

Project details

But the reduced-cost version of the plan detailed Wednesday would deliver on only some of the nontoll goodies that were highlighted last week in an executive summary, when the developer submitted its proposal to the Department of Transportation.

For example:

• The plan would not remove all of the left-lane exits on this portion of I-35W. Left-lane exits not only slow left-lane traffic, but they force exiting motorists to merge with fast-moving traffic, often in drivers' blind spots.

Drivers on the toll lanes would no longer have to worry about making left-lane exits from westbound Loop 820 to either northbound or southbound I-35W, or from either direction of I-35W to eastbound Loop 820. Currently, motorist must make a left hand turn if they are going south on I-35W.

Also, on the nontoll lanes, drivers would no longer need to make a left-lane exit from westbound Loop 820 to southbound I-35W, or from eastbound Loop 820 to northbound I-35W.

However, for those who didn't want to pay tolls, left-lane exits from northbound I-35W to westbound Loop 820, and from southbound I-35W to eastbound Loop 820, would remain.

Frontage roads would not be continuous, as earlier suggested.

Frontage roads would be rebuilt, with better access on and off the highway. However, the frontage roads would not be continuous until a later phase, and would instead dead-end or U-turn at two points: the Trinity River and the Fort Worth & Western rail yard.

The state Transportation Department is treading carefully as it weighs whether to accept the developer's proposal.

Lawmakers are becoming concerned that so many of the Metroplex's upcoming road projects include a toll component.

"I have always felt like the public in Denton and Tarrant County would put up with limited toll roads, but I wonder if we're reaching that limit," state Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, told Transportation Department officials earlier Wednesday. "My public questions whether all that gas tax money goes to projects they can use."

GORDON DICKSON, 817-390-7796

© 2010 Fort Worth Star-Telegram: www.star-telegram.com

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Unelected CAMPO board strikes again: Federal funds will be used to toll Texas 45

CAMPO adopts 25-year plan, with toll Texas 45

5/25/10

Austin Business Journal
Copyright 2010

The Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization Monday passed the hotly-debated, 25-year transportation funding plan, keeping with it the proposed Texas 45 Southwest toll road.

By a vote of 17-2, with only Travis County Commissioner Karen Huber and Sunset Valley Mayor Jeff Mills dissenting, the CAMPO board adopted the plan, which has been years in the works, according to staff.

The 2035 plan is important because items not included in it are excluded from any regional transportation projects that use billions of expected federal and state money.

As the plan stands, money from toll roads left over after operations, maintenance and debt payment can only be used within one mile of the road or in zip codes where 10 percent or more of peak morning toll drivers live.

It also includes the ability to plan for SH 45, which would connect Mopac and FM 1626. After years of planning, some CAMPO board members considered deleting the road from the 2035 plan.

Travis County Commissioners voted recently to push for its removal, however the 3-1 vote appears to have had little impact.

“The bottom line is this a 25-year plan, having [SH 45] in the plan itself means it can continue on,” Assistant CAMPO Director Maureen McCoy said. “It is not saying it is immediate or has priority, just the fact that it is an acknowledged need.”

CAMPO is the regional transportation group designated to approve the use of federal transportation funds within the Austin region.

It is led CAMPO is led by a 20-member board and administrative staff. The board represents Williamson, Travis and Hays Bastrop and Caldwell counties.

© 2010 Austin Business Journal: www.austin.bizjournals.com

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"Thousands in fees for just a few bucks in overdue tolls."

Alarming fees for overdue tolls

Tough to enforce 4000 percent fee on late payments



5/24/10

Chris Willis
KXAN-TV (Austin)
Copyright 2010

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Even the steepest of fines, taxes, and credit-bureau charges have nothing on the Texas Department of Transportation.

The state of Texas is charging motorists a 4000 percent administrative fee for each toll they don’t pay after 112 days. Some motorists – even those with the proper tags – are finding themselves with thousands in fees for just a few bucks in overdue tolls.

In Central Texas, there are 150,000 motorists who owe $3 million in tolls. With that fee, the state of Texas could collect nearly $60 million from them.

As a matter of comparison, there's federal legislation right now in Washington to crack down on unscrupulous credit card companies who charge interest and fees around 30 percent.

To be fair, they've got to collect tolls to pay back the bonds they used to build these roads. And they did offer an amnesty program to give violators a break; only a handful of people took advantage of that amnesty program.

Now, people are running scared - and facing several thousands of dollars in toll road "adminstrative fees"

If you don't pay your federal income taxes, the IRS hits you with a 4-percent interest rate, and a 25-percent penalty after 5 months.

If you think that's too much.. you don't know what too much is.

"It's crazy," said motorist C.C. Lopez. "It's crazy.. I can't believe it."

Lopez owes more than $9,000 to TXDOT.

"I feel like I'm a criminal for driving the toll roads," she said.

Before you think Ms. Lopez one of those people who blows through the tolls without paying... she's not. She says she's always had a TXTAG and always paid.

But when she bought a new car in 2009, she took that TXTAG off the old car, and put it on the new one. That made it invalid, and jacked her bill to more than $9,000. She called TXTAG's customer service to work it out, and what did they tell her: Too bad. Pay it.

"I said, 'Well, I need to figure out how to fix this. They're like, 'Well, you can't.'"

(Editor's note: Clarification on $2500 below.)

Here's what 4000 percent looks like: If you go through 10 tolls, at 60 cents apiece, that's $6. And that's when the clock starts ticking. You'll get at least two letters in the mail, but if it's not paid in 112 days, that $6 dollars gets increased by $250. State law then allows that to increase to $2500 as misdemeanor offenses once those 10 late tolls (tried as individual cases) get to court.

To simplify: $25 per late toll, 10 late tolls, then when each gets to court - $250 per late toll. That's $2500 from $6 in late tolls.

"The fees are only there as an incentive to really get people to pay on time," said Mark Tomlinson, director of the turnpike authority for TXDOT.

He says by the time drivers get "administrative fees" in the 4000 percent range, they've already had ample time to pay their tolls - in other words, just under four months.

Some drivers can qualify for violation-conversion offers, and most can set up payment plans.

Right now, there are about 150,000 drivers in Central Texas who owe TXDOT a little more than $3 million in tolls. When you add the "administrative fees," that $3 million jumps to more than $56 million, officials say - making the average 1,700 percent.

"Astounded, outraged, um.. just unbelieveable," said former Texas State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn. "Where is common sense and fairness?"

Strayhorn spent eight years in charge of every dollar in Texas. She says people who drive on the toll roads should pay their tolls - and if they dont, a reasonable fee. But 4000 percent, she says, is simply mismanagement.

"If they cannot clean up their own mess at TxDOT, then let the Legislature step in and do it for them," she said.

At least lawmaker says the intention of the "adminstrative fee" may have been for a drivers entire account, not for multiple violations charged hundreds of times, over and over.

"I think when the Legislature put into the statute these relatively high allowable fines, it was contemplating that would be the total fine, not that it would be that times a hundred," said Rep. Mark Strama, D-Austin.

Strama has toll roads in his district, and told KXAN these "adminstrative fees" in the "multiple thousand percent" range need a closer look - and that look is soon coming. The Legislature convenes in 2011, and part of its duties this time around will be to vet TxDOT and all its programs.

"This agency is under Sunset Review, and frankly the Sunset Review process is designed to root out things just like this," Strama said.

For now, however, TXDOT says you need to communicate with them.

"This can be very damaging to individuals to have to go through this process, so we want to make every reasonable effort we can to let them work with us," Tomlinson said.

Lopez said she tried.

"They would give me the information, but they would never give me enough where I could have probably saved another $3,000 in fees," Lopez said.

TXDOT's Collection agency is now calling people at home and sending letters to toll violators. But if you don't pay the collection agency, they really have no recourse. They cannot put it on your credit report. In fact, they cannot affect your credit, they cannot keep you from renewing your drivers license and they cannot keep you from registering your vehicle.

So TXDOT is now sending letters to people threatening to take them to court - and tonight at ten, we'll hear from County Officials who tell us that they can't do that either.

© 2010 KXAN: www.kxan.com

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"I think most jurors would be offended at the way this is being handled."

Tough road ahead collecting late tolls

Courts would be overwhelmed, no way to enforce



5/24/10

Chris Willis
KXAN-TV (Austin)
Copyright 2010

More than 150,000 toll violators owe $56.1 million in outstanding tolls and "administrative fees" - but the Texas Department of Transportation is hitting a roadblock, or several, when it comes to collecting them.

To be exact, the amount of outstanding tolls is $3.12 million. But KXAN discovered TXDOT is charging some violators more than 4000 percent in those "administrative fees". And those fees are what push the total amount of money owed to $56.1 million. TXDOT said they're now going to take those violators to court.

"Once the court date is scheduled, we step out of the process, it's in the hands of the court," said Mark E. Tomlinson, TXDOT's director of the Turnpike Authority.

But that's where their troubles begin; those cases are going to cause a major traffic jam in already strained courts, and county officials say they foresee them stalling out.

By law, the toll cases must be heard in a Justice of the Peace court with toll road jurisdiction. And most of those courtrooms hear roughly 9000 cases a year. Imagine the confusion when TXDOT tells the courts in Williamson and Travis counties they’re sending them 150,000 cases.

Local attorney Bill Gammon said right now, TXDOT cannot send any toll violation cases to court. He added the counties have been left in the dark when it comes to how the process will be handled.

"Once people realize this, they're going to have even less respect for the law and less respect for TXDOT and anybody else who tells them they're going to take them to court," he said. "They're going to laugh."

KXAN spoke with the elected officials in Williamson and Travis counties, and they agree with Gammon. Travis County Treasurer Delores Ortega Carter said TXDOT needs to get their ducks in a row before they file any toll violation cases. "They can file all the cases they want, how long they’ll be there we don't know," she said. Carter's colleague in Williamson County, Treasurer Vivian Wood concurs. "I just can’t see our judge and commissioners agreeing to anything even though the statute is there."

County officials said it all boils down to what is called an Interlocal Agreement: A set of rules and guidelines to outline procedures dealing with court costs, collection of tolls and fees, where the money collected goes, payment methods, timeliness and line items.

They said there has got to be an Interlocal Agreement before any cases can be heard in county courtrooms. Ortega-Carter and Wood told KXAN they've been trying to get an agreement with TXDOT since 2006, but have not heard anything from the state agency.

"I don't have anything from the state that tells me…and we don't just send money down to the Comptroller without the state's requirements for identification of those funds," Wood said. Ortega-Carter added: "We need to have a paper trail so that, for auditing purposes, we can see where it’s going. We don't care how the state spends the money, that's their problem. We do care how the county receives that money."

TXDOT is now sending "last chance" letter to toll violators, threatening to take them to court if they do not pay their tolls and "administrative fees."

Tomlinson says one case has already been filed in Williamson County. And Tomlinson admits, they may not get far until they get together with county officials.

"We don’t want any mistakes on our part" he said. "We want to make sure the cases are good and the court processes are respected."

In the meantime, Gammon says 150,000 cases would simply overwhelm the court system, and he adds there’s no way TXDOT can burden the Justice of the Peace Courts with such a heavy case load.

He says if TXDOT does get Interlocal Agreements with Williamson and Travis Counties, and if they insist on charging violators 4000 percent in "administrative fees," violators who do end-up in court should simply request a jury trial.
"I think most jurors would be offended at the way this is being handled," said Gammon.

TXDOT’s Wisconsin-based collection agency is now calling violators at home and sending letters to try and get them to pay their tolls and fees.

But if you ignore the collection agency, there is little they can do. They cannot contact your credit report, they cannot prevent you from renewing your driver's license and they cannot stop you from registering your vehicle with the state.

Taking violators to court could be TXDOT's only option to collect the money. But until an Interlocal Agreement is reached, county officials said those cases will not be heard.

© 2010 KXAN-TV: www.kxan.com

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