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TxDot doesn't have the authority to tax or appropriate money.

Ok, let's start there. Back up 50 yards , take a breath and see if you can understand what I am saying (since, so far, you haven't). I never said that TxDOT had the authority to tax, but TxDOT is pushing very hard for toll roads and using taxpayer dollars to promote this idea, all the while poor mouthing that they just don't have enough money to fund all the road projects that are needed. What TxDOT IS doing (aside from this) is abdicating its responsibility as a government agency in a rather sick and twisted fashion. They want privately built toll roads that they can then get paid to manage (sort of). In short, they want to get paid for not performing the job they are chartered to perform. Additionally, while they claim they don't have enough money for road projects, it seems that they have enough money to promote the use of toll roads and to subsidize the billboards on the highway that will replace some of the roadside memorials for people killed on the road by drunk drivers.

"...government has found another way to rip us(the taxpayers) off"

User fees are not taxes.

Again, I never said that they were. What that comment refers to is the fact that we all pay huge amounts of tax money in the form of gas taxes every time we fill our gas tanks (up to $0.50/gal.). By definition, those gas taxes are supposed to be used to build new roads and maintain the existing ones. Texas also collects a tax on gas to be used to build and maintain Texas roads and highways. Instead, Congress (as well as the Texas legislature) has been diverting some of those gas taxes for pet pork projects such that TxDOT really DOESN'T have all the money it needs for the road projects that are out there.

So, to make the argument more circular, if YOU like the idea of toll roads and YOU want to pay to use them, go for it. Just remember, however, that while you are paying your user fees (tax on ignorance) to travel on the toll road and, over time, sitting in the congestion that ultimately develops, you are ALSO paying for the free roads because you buy gas and pay state and federal taxes on that gas you pump into your tank. That federal tax money is supposed to be re-distributed back to the states to use to (primarily) maintain the interstate highway system. All of the gas tax money the state receives (from the federal re-distribution AND the state gas tax) is supposed to be used by TxDOT for maintaining the interstate highway system and state and local roads.

If you are still unable to grasp this concept, Ben, I don't know of any other way to explain it to you. Toll roads are a means of getting toll road users to pay twice to drive on state (or metropolitan) roadways.

When there are toll roads, I have the option paying to use them all the time, some times, or never. I am a tightwad and try to avoid toll roads, but I do use them sometimes, when the benefits outweigh the costs. My choice, your choice.

OTOH, I can't avoid taxes used to pay for that particular road. I have no choice.

You are like a lot of people, you don't understand the conflict between the legislature and TxDot or between the legislature and the Regional Transportation Authorities.

When TxDot, or the Regional Authority, makes a deal with the private investors to build a toll road, they are bypassing the legislators. Previously, the legislature had granted these agencies the authority to do this.

But somewhere along the way, the legislators figured out that allowing these direct deals between the agencies and the investors would prevent the money from passing thru the legislators hands. Since the legislators use the road money not only to build roads, but also for political purposes, these direct deals would encroach on the legislators political power. That is why they are trying to change it.

This is in Texas. What about other states?

In Indiana, where the turnpike was sold to private investors, the legislature retained authority over interest earned from the principle derived from the sale of the turnpike. And those legislators in Indiana are using that earned interest not just for roads, but also for political purposes.

Let's look at Virginia, where the legislature created the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. This agency, like agencies in Texas, was given authority to make deals directly with private investors to build roads within agency's jurisdiction. Plus, this regional authority was granted authority to levy taxes to be used to build roads.

I understand your, and others, positions on this issue.

You say that TxDOT and the Regional Transportation Authorities shouldn't be allowed to make direct deals with the private investors because the agency might do something that is not in the state's best interest.

The reality is that the legislature has pilfered and misdirected the road tax money to benefit members of the legislature. The best solution is to take this money away from the legislature.