State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn to audit the CTRMA

In a two page letter to Comptroller Strayhorn dated September 30, 2004, State Representative Terry Keel and Austin City Councilman Brewster McCracken requested an immediate comprehensive audit of the expenditures and operations of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority (CTRMA).

"No governmental body appears to have direct oversight
authority over the CTRMA or its $2 billion program"
— Terry Keel, State Representative  (September 2004)

Representative Keel and Councilman McCracken, both members of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) and opposed the slate of highways around the Austin area recently approved for toll conversion and turned over for management by the CTRMA.  In their letter the two elected officials expressed extreme concern about the CTRMA with it's single full-time employee implementing and managing the $2 billion road project. They sited expenditures for lucrative contracts, including public relations contracts that alone exceed the total of the CTRMA annual operating budget.

"there are serious questions being raised by the citizens of Texas
about this new approach to funding highways in our state"
— Carole Keeton Strayhorn, Texas State Comptroller  (October 2004)

State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn promptly responded to the request for an audit. In a letter to Representative Keel dated October 1, 2004, Comptroller Strayhorn advised that as the state's chief fiscal officer, she has instructed her staff to immediately begin a review. Strayhorn noted that, "There are serious questions being raised by the citizens of Texas about this new approach to funding highways in our state." She also agreed that, "as public officials, we have a responsibility to see that these new entities, created by state government, are functioning properly and in compliance with the purposes contemplated by the Legislature when it passed House Bill 3588 during the last legislative session."

News Story: 10/01/2004 - Mismanagement Of Funds Alleged In Toll Road Project [link]
News Story: 10/02/2004 - Strayhorn to audit agency overseeing new Austin toll roads [link]

CorridorWatch.org joins Representative Keel and Councilman McCracken in their concerns. We are also extremely concerned that the CTRMA, under the guise of well funded and professionally orchestrated “community involvement initiatives,” is attempting to sway public opinion on tolling and other issues. We believe that this is an improper lobbying effort to affect public policy.