Contributors
Viewpoints
from various contributors to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Updated when available.
Saturday, February 3, 2001
Texas highway commission is too small
AUSTIN - For 83 years, a three-member commission has charted the course for transportation planning and road construction in the state, approving billions of dollars for projects statewide.
''That's a very, very powerful commission,'' said state Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville.
But Lucio and State Comptroller Carole Keeton Rylander are questioning how three members of the Texas Transportation Commission can adequately represent such a diverse state that has the largest road system in the nation.
They are calling on the Legislature to expand the commission to seven members to give underrepresented areas more of a voice in transportation planning.
That proposal drew support recently from Gov. Rick Perry, who appoints transportation commissioners.
State lawmakers should have expanded the transportation commission years ago. No governing body that makes crucial decisions with billions of dollars should be limited to three people - especially in a state as large as Texas.
This doesn't mean the Texas Department of Transportation and its commission have been doing anything wrong. They work hard to distribute funds as evenly as they can and seek public comment during the process. But it's rare to have a governing body with just three members.
Imagine if your city council had only three members. Parts of the community would feel unrepresented. That's what is happening in Texas regarding funding and planning for roads.
The small size of the commission ''virtually guarantees that large metropolitan areas will be represented while other regions are usually excluded. The size of the state, moreover, makes it difficult for only three individuals to be well schooled in the needs of every region in the state,'' according to Rylander's performance review of the transportation department.
Commission members serve staggered six-year terms with one member's term expiring Feb. 1 of each odd-numbered year. They are considered "at-large" commissioners, meaning they do not represent specific geographic areas.
Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth have been represented on the commission for every year except three in the past two decades, according to the Rylander's review. ''The . . . presence of commissioners from the state's two most populous areas has limited the number of commissioners from other areas of the state,'' the review stated. "This is especially true for the border region, which was represented for only 12 months in the last 22 years.'' Transportation needs differ throughout the state and the North American Free Trade Agreement has created tremendous demands on roads - especially along the border. NAFTA-related traffic makes up about 16 percent of all Texas truck travel. The border gets much of it.
In 1999, about 4.4 million truck crossings were made through nine Texas ports. At the same time, the international bridges in Laredo - the busiest port on the border - had 2.8 million commercial vehicle crossings.
But the Pharr and Laredo border districts were among five transportation districts that received less than 90 percent of the statewide average per capital spending for highway construction and maintenance expenses from 1985-'99, Rylander's review showed.
''You can't have taxation without representation,'' said Lucio, who has introduced a bill to expand the commission to seven members. ''We certainly need to have representation from the border area, and there's certainly a need for us to bring representation from other sectors of the state.''
Expanding the commission is not an end-all solution. There isn't enough money to meet all the state's transportation needs. But expanding the commission will bring a sense of fairness to the process and ensure that more areas of the state are represented on this important commission.
(Ty Meighan is chief of the Scripps Howard Austin Bureau. His column from Austin will run on Saturday in the Caller-Times. You may reach him at 512-334-6640 or by e-mail at meighant@scripps.com.)
