North Texas tollway agency needs enforcement tools

The North Texas Tollway Authority, which will have a significant presence in Tarrant County when the Chisholm Trail tollway and toll lanes on Interstate 35W, Northeast Loop 820, Airport Freeway and Texas 114 are completed, wants legislative help in getting toll scofflaws to pay up.

NTTA officials say they'll ask the Legislature to approve a bill setting up a system for administrative law judges to hear cases against people with long histories of not paying tolls. The result could be to block those people from renewing their vehicle registration if they still fail to pay. Then NTTA wants to ban those vehicles from its tollways.

After that the plans get a little fuzzy. The officials say they're still working on some of the particulars of the bill.

That's OK, too. The legislative session just started, and lawmakers have through March 8 to file bills. The officials said they don't know yet which legislators will be asked to carry the bill.

"We don't have all the tools we need to force people to pay their tolls," NTTA board Chairman Kenneth Barr, a former Fort Worth mayor, told the Star-Telegram Editorial Board on Monday.

NTTA data show about 44,000 habitual violators who owe at least 100 unpaid tolls. Uncollected tolls in 2011 amounted to $12.5 million.

Some people are bothered by the prospect of NTTA setting up its own judicial process, but several Texas government agencies send disputes to administrative law judges. The contemplated bill would allow appeals to district courts, the NTTA officials said.

Blocking vehicle registrations and banning tollway use by those who still fail to pay seem like logical steps. Enforcement must have teeth.

After that, the tollway folks are too nice. They say they plan no specific crackdown to find banned vehicles that are still using the tollway. Drivers could be arrested if Department of Public Safety officers who patrol NTTA roads stop them for normal traffic violations.

That's not enough. Violators should know there's a good chance they will be arrested if they don't clean up their record. If this process is set up, NTTA should plan periodic crackdowns on banned vehicles using its roads.

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