Freedom Caucus Member Matt Krause
Files Big Road Lobby Bill
Undercuts Governor Abbott & Defies TX GOP Platform
His FAKE “Toll Payer Protection Act” is Anti-Taxpayer!
State Rep. Matt Krause, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, just filed a bill that seriously undermines Gov. Greg Abbott’s ‘No toll’ pledge by re-authorizing public private partnership toll roads. These types of toll roads are opposed by both the Texas Republican and Texas Democratic Party platforms. In a very bizarre flip-flop, Matt Krause is now supporting the very toll road schemes he helped us kill last session. What happened?
Texans for Traffic Relief – an Austin lobbying group front – is headed up by a guy who was once a leader in the Young Conservatives of Texas. So what? He now shills for contracting and engineering special interests and has declared war on conservative grassroots activists:
The Big Road Lobby doesn’t like the promises made by Gov. Abbott and Lt. Gov. Patrick, nor the tremendous grassroots support these statewide officials have earned because they’ve stood firm on their campaign pledges for “no more toll roads.”
This FAKE “Toll Payer Protection Act” claims to take the tolls off a road once it’s paid for, but then allows the Transportation Commission to extend the toll every 10 years into perpetuity (forever in gov’t terms)! That’s not toll cessation – it’s toll extension!
This is what our Executive Director has to say about HB 1951. She gets to the heart of the matter by pointing out The Problem our Republican legislators are ignoring as they get all cuddly with the Big Road Lobby:
“We are stunned that Rep. Krause would be convinced by the Big Road Lobby to file a bill that undermines the promises made by Governor Abbott and Lt. Governor Patrick to end toll roads. Rather than supporting a fix to TxDOT’s underlying structural management problems as cited in the 2017 Sunset Advisory Commission’s Report to the 85th Legislature (page 2), the Big Road Lobby continues to wail that there’s just not enough money. As long as TxDOT is ‘not meeting expectations andis not prepared to effectively handle the influx of new transportation funding projected to double over the next decade,” nor has it “met key on-time or on-budget measures for several years,’ there can NEVER be enough money poured into the transportation bureaucracy! We are deeply disappointed in Rep. Krause for filing a fake “toll payer protection” bill that undercuts taxpayers, our Governor, and Lt. Governor in order to appease the road lobby. We call on him to reverse course, and we call on current House authors and co-authors to remove their support immediately.” JoAnn Fleming, Executive Director, Grassroots America – We the People PAC and its premier project – the Texas Conservative Grassroots Coalition