The $10 minimum required on your tolltag account.

[TheChadVIII]

Just plain don't get that your government really can be improved do you?
$50,000 to 8 charities a year sound alright?
How about the next time you smack a pot hole and bend a tie-rod and crack your front lip. Maybe theres a small chance that would have been fixed had the state had $400,000 extra dollars to repair their roads.

The "if you don't like it go somewhere else" response is a pet-peeve of mine.

[tailchaser]

Just plain don't get that your government really can be improved do you?
$50,000 to 8 charities a year sound alright?
How about the next time you smack a pot hole and bend a tie-rod and crack your front lip. Maybe theres a small chance that would have been fixed had the state had $400,000 extra dollars to repair their roads.

The "if you don't like it go somewhere else" response is a pet-peeve of mine.

The government shouldn't be giving any of my money to charities. They should return it to me if they don't need it so I can dole it to charities as I see fit.

I thought you said the state was getting the 400,000 dollars. Did you mean to say that the North Texas Tollway Authority got the money?

Oh, wait. Now that I read your article, I see that this deals with Texas Tag customers, not NTTA customers. Do you have a Texas Tag? Hmm... I don't.

[HudsonHawk]

Just plain don't get that your government really can be improved do you?
$50,000 to 8 charities a year sound alright?
How about the next time you smack a pot hole and bend a tie-rod and crack your front lip. Maybe theres a small chance that would have been fixed had the state had $400,000 extra dollars to repair their roads.

The "if you don't like it go somewhere else" response is a pet-peeve of mine.

If it was mandatory that all people have said tag and they required you to have an account balance then yes I would have an issue with it. The simple fact is it is an entirely voluntary system. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PARTICIPATE. You can get around the Metromess perfectly fine without using a toll road (unless you live in Frisco or The Colony then that is up for debate.) So until it is mandatory Deal with it!

[TheChadVIII]

Ya know, I agree with you. The government has no business in giving away any dollars that are owed to us to any sort of charity. However I do think that $400,000 spent charities are better than the same amount spent on advertisements.

The NTTA is a division of the state government. They are getting the money.
You were the one that brought it up to going into the "state's coffers" earlier. I replied with that would be fine, meaning then it may have a better chance at being used for something more productive than the Keep Texas Moving campaign advertisements.

No I don't have a TxTag. But I'm inclined enough to care to see how people are affected and could be bettered by their government even if I'm not directly a customer of that particular program.

[Bacon]

You could all just stop driving...?

[TheChadVIII]

So until it is mandatory deal with it!

My hope is that it never becomes mandatory in the first place. Thats why we pay a gas tax among other things.

Read the whole thread, this is the third time I'm saying it.
I'm all for toll roads that use the money so they can be built nicer, faster, quicker and whatnot.
I'll pay the tolls. I never whined about the price or said I didn't want to not pay.

However there is a better way to benefit the paying motorists who use these roads to the tune of $400,000 that the NTTA figured out a way to use tag user's money to generate, and the government is not doing that.

[HudsonHawk]

BTW: Did you actualy read the reference Article? It does not mention anything about advertising. Maybee you should actually do a bit of reserach before jumping to conclusions.

http://www.statesman.com/news/conten.../1210wear.html

I actually have more trouble with them spending any money on advertising when the roads are in the shape they are, then in how they are using what you consider to be illicit gains. Which I think is the root cause of your post.

[tailchaser]

However there is a better way to benefit the paying motorists who use these roads to the tune of $400,000 that the NTTA figured out a way to use tag user's money to generate, and the government is not doing that.

Once again, your article doesn't say shit about the NTTA... It references another separate toll authority...

[HudsonHawk]

Once again, your article doesn't say shit about the NTTA... It references another separate toll authority...

Which happens to be the governement.

[TheChadVIII]

Check it. Maybe you shouldn't jump to conclusions about thinking I'm misinformed.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...1.467aa6d.html

$7-9 million is being spent on the campaign out of their budget. That $400,000 is included in their budget.

And yes, your second point is the basis of my argument. We agree on that. The money they have can be used for something else.

[TheChadVIII]

Once again, your article doesn't say shit about the NTTA... It references another separate toll authority...

You're right, forgive me about saying NTTA. I meant TxDOT.

[Miatamaniac92]

Again, I'm not arguing about the payment process of the tollways.

This is about an additional $400,000 annually generated in a shady banking method at best, that goes to a multi-million dollar campaign on why we need more tollways that could be filtered to something more worthwhile.

TX Dot is a government agency. It should not be trying to make a profit on the citizens. There is not a mandate by the people for more Tollway Advertising. Especially not here in Austin.

I have no problem with it collecting the interest, if it were used to reduce toll fees or actually build roads. TX Dot is advertising on the Public's dollar, without the Public's consent. The excuse that it is all extra-budgetary expenses does not fly well with me.

Chris

[TheChadVIII]

Well put!

[HudsonHawk]

Check it. Maybe you shouldn't jump to conclusions about thinking I'm misinformed.

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcont...1.467aa6d.html

$7-9 million is being spent on the campaign out of their budget. That $400,000 is included in their budget.

And yes, your second point is the basis of my argument. We agree on that. The money they have can be used for something else.

Again there is nothing in ANY of the articles that says this $$$ is being spent on advertising other then the first one. And the article it is said to be referencing from makes abosolutely no claim to that use fof the funds even though it points out lots of other things it is used for. That is an intuitive leap on the part of the writer of the first article without providing supporting facts.

[TheChadVIII]

That has little basis either. The money is going into their budget pool, from which they are using much more on an advertising scheme that is currently under scrutiny by lawmakers.

No one source of income by a government agency solely goes into one program by that agency. The article says that the $400,000 helps "defer" the costs of the multi-million dollar ad program.

[HudsonHawk]

That has little basis either. The money is going into their budget pool, from which they are using much more on an advertising scheme that is currently under scrutiny by lawmakers.

No one source of income by a government agency solely goes into one program by that agency. The article says that the $400,000 helps "defer" the costs of the multi-million dollar ad program.

But the first article implies that the sole purpose of that fund is to offset the cost of the advertising and provides no supporting evidence to support that viewpoint.

[TheChadVIII]

"The money helps defray the cost of the multi-million dollar Keep Texas Moving public relations campaign"

It may imply that it is the sole purpose, but doesn't state it.
However the bias of the writer in the first link is against the TxDot actions so you can expect that.

If money goes into the agency's money pool, they use it on their projects, advertisement included. I don't think they get funds from one source and go "Lets not use it for this one thing".

[synaptik]

<<<<<<< kicks a dead horse .....

[driftdevil]

Why don't everyone just get along

[Miatamaniac92]

We can agree to disagree.
Boo Toll Roads!!!
Yay Miatas!!!

Chris