DPS insists on ridiculously unfair surcharges; allocation of funds misused, Gila profits

Texas drivers are now required to be more "responsible." Sept. 1, 2003 Texans became subject to the Driver Responsibility Law (HB 3588), which established "a system which assigns points to moving violations classified as Class C misdemeanors and applies surcharges to offenders, based upon the type of offense and the time period in which the citation was received," according to the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS).

The key word within this law is surcharge, which is a synonym for an excess or burdensome charge or tax. The surcharge exercises an absolute lack of protection, justice, and discernment into the state's driving citizens' overall well-being.

Due to legislation passed prior to 2003, Texas made it legal for its government institutions to outsource any collections of dollars owed to be gathered by a third party (private corporation).

Enter Gila Corp., the professional collections agency that manages and collects these surcharges with the muscle of the DPS looming as the front to enforce Gila Corp.'s bureaucratic mazes. Allowing companies such as Gila Corp. to inflate state budgets is a blatant violation of Texas' citizens' trust and liberties, but it's legal?

Ninety-nine percent of the surcharge money allegedly goes to future Texas trauma care centers, the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (TETF), and the Texas Mobility Fund (TMF), amongst other funds, to allow an enhancement of emergency room services, recruit innovative scientists to better Texas' surgical capabilities, and fund road projects, including toll roads.

The remaining one percent goes to the DPS for allowing this aggrandized pilfering to take place. The shifting around of this appropriated money by Gov. Perry and Lt. Gov. Dewhurst is underhanded and opaque to say the least.

For DPS to allow blood-sucking corpocrats such as Gila Corp. and its business units (Municipal Services Bureau) to piggyback behind a facade of justice and responsibility is completely unacceptable.

The distribution of the surcharges so far will not enhance jobs for the majority of Texas' citizens by pouring a significant percentage of them into boosting highly specialized fields. Why are Texans being overcharged to give bonds to toll road companies to charge citizens for the rest of their lives for a piece of infrastructure that will continue to pay for itself?

The only responsibility Texas and its leaders and legislators has taken with this law is the responsibility to line the pockets of specialists of very specific fields and offer up billions in future revenue to out of state agencies to build more roads so Texans may be subject to surcharges.

Why not throw some of the surcharge money at the already existing, but antiquated, rail system that could efficiently connect rural and urban areas, allowing Texas citizens to move around in greater numbers with minimum fossil fuel use?

Possibly DPS needs to reevaluate its driver license tests and requirements, plus raise the bar for the luxury of legally operating a personal vehicle.

If this wholesale embezzlement must take place, why not place the funds into boosting public transportation systems in Texas' heavily populated municipal districts to keep people from driving so often? If the urban citizens of Texas had better public transportation systems, then that might reduce the number of severe traumas due to personal vehicular use.