State of NTTA given to Collin County Commissioners Court

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

On Monday, Paul Wageman, the Chairman of the Board of NTTA and a Collin County appointee, along with fellow Collin County appointee Gary Base and Executive Director Allen Clemson gave their annual State of NTTA presentation (PDF) to the Collin County Commissioners Court.

Clemson told the court that of the 1.7 million toll tags in use, about 600 thousand were used by Collin county residents. According to Clemson about 75% of toll road drivers were using toll tags. 20% were using the billing systems called "Zip Cash."

Clemson and Base briefed the court on the new rate hikes due to go into effect in September. Creatively describing the rate hike as a "responsible and innovative tolling solution," the NTTA executives explained that rates would increase from 11 cents to 14 1/2 cents. They also told the court that henceforth tolls system-wide would increase by 2 1/2% every other year on odd numbered years.

Discussing tolls, Base told the court that there has been a drop off of toll customers due to the increased gasoline prices and unemployment. However, he said that while the "elasticity" of toll rates would cause a further drop off with the increased rates, but that lowering rates would not increase the number of drivers enough to increase revenue.

Describing one "Zip Cash" customer whose $8 tolls turned into $60+ worth of penalties and fees, Base told the court that, "they were looking into that to see if we can improve that as well, but usually those people are non-responders, they ignore the letters they get and everything like that. We hope to improve the educational level of them."

Toll revenue did not meet budgeted expectations in 2008. The 2008 budget expected $284.3 million, but only $261.7 million was collected.

Creative spin was the order of the day as NTTA explained away one issue after another with glib generalities.

On the recent Dallas Morning News charges that NTTA has done a poor job of awarding contracts to minority contractors, all the NTTA had to say was that they were committed to business diversity.

Mentioning the recent flood of wrong way crash fatalities on the DNT, Clemson told the court that NTTA, "had gone above and beyond the call of duty to respond to this" -- stating that NTTA had made many prior changes to address the issue and that they have appointed a task force to study and make recommendations. The task force final report is due in September. Meanwhile in order to improve safety, the NTTA will raise the speed limits to 70 mph on most of their toll roads except inner portions of the DNT.

Updating the status of the Sam Rayburn tollway, Clemson stated that phase 3 would open later this fall and that the phase 4 going past US 75 would open in 2011. The US 75 interchange is due to be completed in 2012.

Later in the meeting, the commissioners appointed Bill Moore to replace outgoing NTTA director Gary Base.