From 2009 to 2015, Watchdog fought against unfair billing practices with the North Texas Tollway Authority and aggressively fought for consumer rights.
Over the years, many drivers have written to the watchdog to tell me that tolls of just a few dollars have ballooned into hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars in fines and penalties.
The driver was then sent to prison.
Trust the email
I borrowed the name used by a frustrated North Richland Hills woman who called the NTTA a “dysfunctional empire.”
The most dramatic illustration of this for me came in 2010, when a 34-year-old single mother was thrown in jail for 27 hours for not paying her 5-year-old child’s $11 bill. The police never told the daughter of a retired state trooper what she’d been charged with. She said she never received the initial bill, any subsequent bills, or any warnings.
The NTTA did not believe her story and vehemently disputed my story as part of our ongoing skirmish. NTTA’s defense was that they mailed her a notice and it was not returned by the post office, so they considered the alleged tortfeasor to have lawfully received notice.
I didn’t buy it.
I replied that I couldn’t trust that mail would get to its intended destination, especially when it came with the possibility of going to prison.
Over 14 years ago, NTTA didn’t even send warning letters with return receipts as proof of delivery. Now they use USPS tracking.
NTTA spokesman Michael Ray told me, “Any mail returned to the NTTA is treated by our company as an ‘incorrect address’ and further collection is halted until the recipient’s ‘correct address’ is found.”
He said a similar tracking procedure would be applied to repeat violators who had received at least 100 unpaid tolls and two unpaid notices in a year.
Unfair Enforcement
While reading the survey results of Dallas Morning News A year-long investigation into Texas toll road operations brought back memories.
Reporter Yamil Berard’s research into the NTTA and other Texas toll roads found that Texas has built as many toll roads in the past 20 years as nearly every other state combined.
I felt a sense of déjà vu when she reported on unfair enforcement practices that hurt those who can least afford it.
Imagine what would happen if your car’s annual registration sticker was blocked due to unpaid tolls.
Or you’ll be arrested and thrown in jail.
“I don’t know of anyone who’s ever been to jail for not paying a toll,” Ray of the NTTA told me.
It is up to the judge whether to send someone to jail for failing to be served with a summons.
That would then become, Ray said, “a separate issue outside the NTTA’s jurisdiction. We were not involved in that process and do not know about the outcome.”
Personally, if I were running a public institution, I would want to know those numbers.
For more information, read Berard’s “Toll Trap” series.
People Power
In 2011, back when the Texas Legislature was listening to voters instead of a few billionaires (but I digress), I conducted an experiment in people power when I heard that then-State Senator Jane Nelson was planning to introduce a bill to curb high fines and fees.
Stories abounded that brought this need to the forefront: One Denton man remembered being forced to pay $139 to a collection agency for a $3 toll, which included five separate charges of $25 each for the same $3.
“It’s like organized crime,” complained one of Keller’s drivers, who asked, “What’s the best way to challenge this government agency?”
I knew Senator Nelson needed ammunition to get his bill passed, and for months I had been calling on anyone who felt they had been treated unfairly to send a complaint directly to the Senator’s office.
She received 160 letters, which she brandished in the Senate as evidence of unfair practices. Even the official bill summary in the Legislative Record listed “160 constituents.” Some of the 160 people traveled to Austin to testify against the NTTA.
I’m not sure that would work today – now two billionaires can say yes or no, and lawmakers will follow suit. (But I digress again.)
Her bill passed, capping fines and penalties. Nelson is now retired from the Senate and serves as Secretary of State.
I expected that would solve most of the issues. The complaints to Watchdog subsided. In 2019 I rated NTTA as “Most Improved.” In the end, I discovered I didn’t know what I didn’t know. The Thortrap series fills in the gaps.
Big mistake
In 2014, no one in the dysfunctional empire noticed that there were 192,000 incorrect charges on drivers’ bills. Drivers, including me, were told the new toll roads would be free for two months. The incorrect charges would be credited back to our accounts.
TxDOT, which operates the toll roads involved in the case, blamed the NTTA, which handles the tolls. The NTTA accused TxDOT of failing to notice the error before handing over the toll information.
On a snowstorm-hit Friday in 2015, the NTTA delivered some bad news that few people noticed: ZipCash couriers hadn’t received bills, warnings, or collection notices in the mail. The NTTA apologized to customers.
what will you do
Berard’s findings show that state lawmakers must demand full accountability and complete transparency in Texas’ tolling system.
Texas has the toughest penalties for unpaid tolls of any state and this needs to be investigated and improved.
Should unpaid tolls continue to be treated as a crime, especially if they began as a small toll debt?
Shouldn’t disabled veterans be able to use NTTA roads for free or at a discount?
Will drivers who use toll roads frequently get a 50% discount?
Can long-term contracts with private road developers be terminated?
Could more money from the state’s multi-billion dollar surplus be dedicated to making roads free?
Among his key findings, Berard wrote, “Some of the state’s largest toll road operators have built up large cash reserves and continue to engage in aggressive collection practices even though they have more than enough funds to repay debts to investors, even while allowing millions of drivers to use toll roads free of charge.”
That’s a tax
In a 2015 column, I declared North Texas the toll road capital of the U.S. and expressed my opinion that Texas’ overwhelming reliance on toll roads “is government failure of the worst kind. We have to pay for what we can do for free. They say they won’t raise our taxes, but the hundreds of dollars a month in tolls are coming out of our pockets.”
Whatever you call it, it’s a tax.
The TV series “The Toll Trap” gives the dysfunctional empire another name: “the criminal enforcement capital of unpaid bills.”
