Brazos County commissioners spend part of Tuesday’s meeting setting the record straight about the failed attempt to raise vehicle registration fees to help fund transportation projects.
County judge Duane Peters told an opponent to the fee increase, Roy Flores, that the purpose of the referendum was to raise money for projects and not to fund the regional mobility authority (RMA).
Peters also told Flores that the county and the RMA did not spend any money to promote the referendum. Flores was told that a political action committee paid for promoting the special question.
Flores was also told that the RMA’s only paid person is a part time position through the Bryan-College Station metropolitan planning organization.
RMA board members do not get paid. The chairman is appointed by the governor and the rest of board is appointed by the county commission, the College Station and Bryan city councils, and Texas A&M.
Tuesday’s discussion was the result of county commissioners reappointing its representative, local engineer and former county employee Alan Munger.
As for almost 59 percent of Brazos County voters rejecting the increase in vehicle registration fees, the county judge told Flores “Citizens spoke. Don’t have a problem with it. They said that they didn’t want it, based on a lot of in my opinion misinformation. But, that doesn’t mean that the RMA goes away. It doesn’t mean we don’t have an operation there. Those are non paid folks.”
Click below for comments from Roy Flores and Duane Peters during the November 15, 2022 Brazos County commission meeting.