As I have previously shared with you, the Harris County Toll Road system has become a cash cow. Last year, it earned a profit of over $400 million. In just the first two months of this year, it generated $94 million in profit.
However, we know very little about how those profits are used, and there have been increasing questions about whether they are being used effectively and appropriately.
Under the law that enabled Harris County to create the toll road authority, the Commissioners Court is established as the governing body and is given broad authority to govern it. That authority includes how to spend any excess funds generated by the toll roads. The only restriction is that the excess must be used for “the study, design, construction, maintenance, repair, or operation of roads, streets, highways, or other related facilities.” That last phrase – “other related facilities” - creates broad discretion with the Commissioners Court on how those funds should be utilized. The connection of some of the expenditures of these funds has been quite tangential to mobility.
To make matters worse, the enabling legislation specifically says that the Court may spend those funds “without state approval, supervision, or regulation.” The only check on how the Commissioners Court allocates or spends the excess funds is a very cursory review occasionally performed by the County Auditor, a political appointee. The last review was done in 2022.
In recent years, the Commissioners Court has divided most of the money between the four commissioners, allocating some to other departments, including a large dollop for “General Administration.” As of November, the mobility fund held $463 million in unspent mobility funds. Certainly, some of the excess proceeds are being used to fund important infrastructure projects, but there is virtually zero visibility or oversight on how they are being spent.
In addition, there have been some serious questions about the administration of the toll road authority. Long-time investigative reporter, Wayne Dolcefino, uncovered what appears to be very questionable staffing contracts. Also, the executive director was given a 40% raise last year, which even drew the opposition of our spendthrift County Judge.
This suggests that it is time to reform the Authority's governance and how its excess proceeds are being spent. Toll roads in Texas are authorized and regulated by state law. Therefore, the Legislature clearly has the authority, and I would suggest, the responsibility to step in and make some badly needed reforms.
The first step would be to reform the governance. There is no reason the County Commissioners should be the only elected officials with input on how the Authority is run. Metro, for example, has members from the City of Houston, the County, and the other cities participating in the transit agency.
So, we should expand the board to provide broader representation. Perhaps we should add two members appointed by the Houston City Council and two more members from suburban cities. We could also add one representing the vast unincorporated areas of Harris County and municipal utility districts, some of which perform street maintenance.
This expanded Authority board should meet in its own public meetings, separate and apart from Commissioner Court meetings. It should retain an outside auditor and its own counsel. In other words, it should be a truly independent agency and not the political fiefdom of the County Commissioners.
Second, any projects financed using the excess proceeds should be subject to the review of a third party. Houston-Galveston Area Council’s (HGAC) Transportation Policy Council must approve most mobility projects in the region, so that would be a possibility. Also, since the toll roads are integral to the State’s overall highway system, perhaps the Texas Transportation Commission could be tasked with approving projects.
Third, the excess funds should be more equitably distributed. Even the division of the proceeds evenly between the Commissioners makes no sense. Precinct 3 has nearly 50% of the lanes for which the County is responsible for maintaining but only gets 25% of the money.1
Also, there is no reason that some of the excess proceeds should not be distributed to other entities that maintain roads connecting to the toll system. Mostly, this would be the municipalities in Harris County, but some could also be allocated to municipal utility districts.
I am sure there are other good ideas about reforming HCTRA. However, the status quo, in my opinion, is unacceptable and cannot be allowed to continue. The Authority will probably be producing close to a billion dollars annually in profit for the foreseeable future. Those funds are a great opportunity to improve our mobility infrastructure. But they also represent the opportunity for a lot of mischief and the misuse of public dollars. The Legislature needs to ensure we get the former and not the latter.
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Note 1—Previously, the division was even more egregious, with the Commissioners Court allocating some of the money under a vague “equity” standard, which gave even more money to precincts with fewer lane miles to maintain.
