New Sunset report calls for end to TTC:
Paxton said legislation to replace commission with chairman could pass

June 4, 2008

BY DANNY GALLAGHER, McKinney Courier-Gazette

A new report from the state’s Sunset Advisory Commission places some heavy criticism on the Texas Department of Transportation and calls for the abolishment of the Texas Transportation Commission.

The 157 page report released earlier this week proposes a four year plan in which the five-member TTC panel would be replaced by a single commissioner and control over TxDOT would return to the Texas Legislature “where it belongs.”

The Sunset Commission, founded in 1977, conducts reviews all of state agencies every 12 years in an effort “to identify and eliminate waste, duplication and inefficiency in government agencies,” according to their website.

The latest TxDOT report characterized the state agency as a distrustful group that ignores public opinion and pushes its own agenda with very little government oversight or accountability.

“Many expressed concerns that TxDOT was ‘out of control,’ advancing its own agenda against objections of both the Legislature and the public,” the report said in its opening summary. “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.”

The report offers a four-year proposal followed by another review that aims to bring greater government control over the agency and reduce or eliminate certain spending measures that can go back into the state’s highway fund. The most radical proposal is the elimination of the TTC. The report lists the suggestion under the issue heading, “Until trust in the Texas Department of Transportation is restored, the state cannot move forward to effectively meet its growing transportation needs.”

The SAC suggests replacing the TTC with a single “Commissioner of Transportation” and creating a transportation legislative oversight committee that will review and comment on TxDOT’s activities, programs and spending.

The salaries of the five commissioners and all subsequent assistant positions would put approximately $380,234 back into the budget, according to the report.

The report also suggests cutting back, reorganizing or eliminating several print and outdoor advertising campaigns and programs, saving the department at least $490,000.

SAC also suggests redeveloping their Statewide Transportation Plan and simplifying the department’s “complicated transportation planning and project development process” by establishing a more well-defined and understandable system that integrates all of the department’s projects and priorities, according to the report.

State Rep. Ken Paxton, R-McKinney, said he had not yet read the entire 157 page report, but did agree with the parts he has read so far such as the shorter review times and the establishment of an oversight committee.

“With the recommendations I saw, I didn’t have a problem with any of them including the four year review instead of the 12 year review,” Paxton said. “I would like the legislature to have an oversight committee comprised of legislators who would have direct hiring and firing authority. Basically [TxDOT] is going to be responsible to the legislature and I think that’s good because it hasn’t worked the way it was.”

Collin County Commissioner Joe Jaynes said the report shows that changes need to be made at TxDOT.

“There has to be some public confidence restored and what I still don’t understand is they are talking about a funding crisis but at the same time, I hear they have a $8 billion to $14 billion surplus,” Jaynes said. “Where’s the crisis?”

Even though some of the suggestions in the report call for some large, sweeping changes, Paxton said a bill with similar measures could have a good chance of passing in the Texas House and the Senate and even through the Governor’s office.

“If it passes overwhelming (in the legislature), it makes it hard for the Governor to veto it and I think it would have a reasonable chance to pass if it had a lot of votes,” Paxton said.