Millennial Democrat in DFW Shamelessly Tries to Buy Votes
Power-Hungry Plesa will do anything to stay in power.
Politicians in office today are responsible for the rapid decrease in freedom and prosperity seen in America. Not just at the federal level, but Texas state politicians as well. They went along with the Covid lockdowns and money printing that have destroyed America from every angle.
Opportunist Republicans and Democrats are now fighting over the scraps, offering more and more handouts in exchange for votes.
Power-hungry Democrat Mihaela Plesa [HD70] will do anything to hold on to her purple district. The Collin County Democrat recently filed a bill that would mandate toll road operators expand discounts to senior citizens.
She cynically modified a discount program meant for disabled veterans and war heroes (504.202 & 504.315) to include anyone over the age of 65.
That is going to be a lot of people, and conditionally mandating such a discount would result in higher toll rates for everyone else, because the operators will have to make up the difference elsewhere. This would also result in more congested toll roads, defeating the entire purpose of the paid toll road. Paying customers would see less benefit on their morning and evening commutes.
Seniors already get plenty of help and exemptions, such as on property taxes:
Age 65 or older and disabled exemptions: Individuals age 65 or older or disabled residence homestead owners qualify for a $10,000 residence homestead exemption for school district taxes, in addition to the $40,000 exemption for all homeowners.
These exemptions for large consistencies make meaningful reform on property taxes more difficult. So why would she push a policy that would result in more congested toll roads and higher toll rates? Put quite simply—to increase her own personal power.
Plesa represents Texas House District 70, which covers parts of Collin County.
As the reader may imagine, this is a purple district. Indeed, she narrowly won re-election in 2022—by less than 2 percentage points.
If we zoom in on the district map, we can see that her district includes State Highway 190, also known as President George Bush Turnpike—a toll road.
It’s also not far from other toll roads, as may be seen on the NTTA system map.
Well, it looks like something she could pitch to elderly voters in her district. Surely she knows that senior citizens tend to vote Republican, and that they reliably turn out to vote.
She’s in a purple district and she will do anything to stay in power—even weakening benefits for veterans and making our toll roads more expensive and congested.
She wants the power to push her far-left agenda. Here is why she wants that power.
Don’t be fooled by Plesa’s breadcrumbing, and don’t be fooled by the subsequent attempts by Democrats and Republicans to cover their recent failures by emptying the state treasuries.
Her toll bill is a cynical attempt to stay in power that would only worsen traffic and raise toll rates.
You’re right. Carve outs to groups, especially large ones like “anyone over 65” makes meaningful reform difficult. I know lots of people who live in much nicer houses/ neighborhoods than mine but their taxes have been “frozen” for 10-15 years so I pay way more than they do. Some of them, even retired, have more money coming in from retirement pensions than I do from working all the time. I don’t begrudge them the retirement they earned, but I just want the exemptions and freezes to go away and then everyone could pay the same lower rates. Keep in mind, many of these seniors I know always rail against food stamps, Medicaid, and other programs that we pay for with a select group of beneficiaries. However, they are more than happy to vote for bond elections for roads, schools, new courthouses, and much more knowing their own taxes won’t go up but instead it will be the younger homeowners, investment properties, and businesses paying for everything new.
Just what we need...more traffic in Dallas