NEWS FLASH - JULY 1, 2005
TxDOT CAN’T SPELL LOCAL CONTROL
“Surprised and concerned leaders from San Antonio could only stand on the sidelines Thursday as state officials agreed to pursue a private bid to build and operate toll roads in Bexar County,” that's the opening line a story by Patrick Driscoll that appears in today’s San Antonio Express-News.
Even Bill Thornton, the Governor appointed Chairman of the Alamo Regional Mobility Authority (RMA) was shut out of the process. Shockingly the Transportation Commission didn’t have the common courtesy to notify Thornton that the deal for privately built and operated toll roads in Bexar County would be on the Commission’s agenda yesterday.
Toll roads in Houston generate $50 million dollars a year in revenue that is reinvested in Harris County transportation projects. But toll roads in San Antonio may instead generate billions in revenue for TxDOT’s private monopoly road operator over the next half-century, denying Bexar County the same degree of benefit that Harris County enjoys.
Not surprisingly, the private bid to build and operate Bexar County toll roads comes from Cintra Zachry, the same group selected by the Commission last December to plan TTC-35. Of course the deal is secret, again. Most things involving money, monopolies, and unexplained transportation projects by TxDOT today are secret. Gone is government transparency, accountability and open government. No longer is the public permitted to participate in, or even observe, the planning, negotiation, or details of government contracts involving billions of dollars of public infrastructure and the expenditure of millions upon millions of our tax dollars.
[ San Antonio Express-News Story, "S.A. left out of toll road decision," July 1, 2005 ]