Letter From the President

On Monday, February 1, along with Mayor Tom Leppert I was pleased to testify before a joint hearing of the Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Committee and the House Transportation Committee at the State Capital in Austin.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee, John Carona, called the hearing to explore the options available to the State to fund highway maintenance and expansion of roads and highways as we move into the new decade.

The Mayor’s testimony focused on the need to look ahead, at the growth of Dallas and the region and the need to prepare our infrastructure for the added traffic we will bear. The fact is that in the next 20 years we will add nearly 3 million people to this region alone. One observer noted, “They bring cars, they don’t bring highways.”

My focus was on the need to stop blaming the Texas Department of Transportation for not being able to deliver new capacity and maintain the old, when gas tax revenues (used for highway improvements) have been frozen since 1991, diversions from the collections go to unrelated expenditures, and other suggested revenue enhancements are politically unpalatable.

“Stop strangling the starving goose,” I suggested to the committee, noting that the reality is the status quo and will not take us any further down the road. (To be fair many on the committee need to have their confidence reestablished in TxDOT and TxDOT is working on this.)

A representative of HEB of San Antonio, a 30 year veteran of logistics and supply chain management for that great firm, and a member of the Texas 2030 Committee studying transportation needs, (and worth the read), noted the increasing difficulty of moving freight along crowded Texas highways.

A transportation expert and long-range planner Michael Morris, of the North Texas Council of Governments, noted that unless we find ways to act our commute times in the DFW area could increase by up to 180 percent. He also noted that the longer there are delays in state funding the greater imbalance there will arise with respect to added toll way projects.

Previous efforts to move forward have run into tough sledding. Senator Florence Shapiro rightly suggested that real and meaningful collaboration between City and business organizations with interested groups, which feel left out of the process, must occur. Senator Carona notes that even in a year like this our statewide leadership needs to acknowledge the bind we’re in, with respect to transportation, and be prepared to act in Texas’ best interest.

It’s a bit early to detail specific solutions to this growing problem that Mayor Mike Moncrief of Fort Worth described as a “crisis.” Many of the solutions are known, but are not liked especially in an election year. The time is right for those looking out for the long-term interests of the state and the region to start the process of discussion and collaboration with our fellow Texans so we can meet our obligations to the future.

When you next see Senator Carona, thank him for being a profile in courage and a real leader on an issue with which we must deal as new companies and millions of people are headed our way.

Amb. James C. Oberwetter
President
Dallas Regional Chamber