Question: When is it more appropriate to
call a proposal "highway extortion"
rather than "highway robbery"?
Answer:
When the Texas Department of
Transportation (TxDOT) negotiates with
the Harris County Toll Road Authority
(HCTRA) and makes demands such as TxDOT
is now making on how new toll roads will
be built in Harris County.
TxDOT wants the county to pay TxDOT
$1.234 billion for the right to use or
cross the state's right of way for the
construction of possibly three new
tollways. The county will then be
responsible for all other right of way
and construction costs. When the project
is completed and tolls are being
collected, 8 percent of the gross tolls
will be paid to the state.
This extortion, of course, is not
acceptable to the county. The county has
offered to pay the state $1.2 billion,
payable over 40 years with $350 million
of that being paid up front. I believe
even this is too generous to the state.
Remember: the county has already paid
the state $250 million to build part of
the Katy Freeway.
When I (as Harris County judge)
negotiated with TxDOT in 1983 for the
right to build the Hardy Toll Road and
West Belt (which became the Sam Houston
Toll Road), the state highway commission
was great. Again in 1990, the
commissioners were supportive in the
construction of the south and east belt,
along with the county taking over the
money-losing toll bridge at the Houston
Ship Channel.
We were able to complete
all of those projects ahead of schedule
and below projected budget.
The agencies that rate the county
bonds have rewarded
Harris County by
improving ratings because of the toll
road authority's strong financial
position. I don't believe we can keep
our favorable rating if the state
prevails in its current demands.
This present state commission for
TxDOT has a different attitude than the
commission I dealt with in the past. The
current TxDOT commissioners want to do
in Harris County what they've done in
central Texas. In the Austin area they
took proposals from private groups to
build and operate some toll roads. TxDOT
accepted the proposal that offered the
most money to the state. Great for the
state; bad for the users. Although the
private group has to pay large amounts
to the state, they don't care because
they can pretty much charge what they
want to the users.
Instead of building public projects
based on the best low bid, the state is
adopting a policy of building major
projects based on the best high bid.
When the state enters into one of these
agreements called a "comprehensive
development agreement," or CDA, the
state agrees to limit competition. The
investor gets a guarantee that other
roads will not be built to compete in
any way with the CDA toll read.
Who knows what effect this will have
on future development? This has already
happened in Pflugerville, on Texas State
Highway 45, where an exit was denied in
order to maximize revenue, thus hurting
local business.
California did a CDA on a
state road
in the Los Angeles area and later
decided more capacity was needed.
However, before they could proceed they
had to buy back the CDA from the
investors. The buy-back cost the state a
lot of money. Apparently, this procedure
will be used by TXDOT to build FM 1604
in San Antonio.
I believe the state is being
unreasonable with
Harris County, because
it knows it can receive proposals from
private entities for as much or more. If
that happens, the roads will still be
built. The tolls will be a lot higher.
Local control will be lost. The private
entity will make large profits and those
profits will leave the area, probably
going overseas to Spain as has happened
in the Austin area.
This is not just a
Harris County
problem. A similar concern is developing
in North Texas with the
North Texas Toll
Authority. The move there by TxDOT could
be that the state takes over the toll
authority's toll roads, including the
existing ones. TxDOT is asking for
legislation that will allow this to
happen. San Antonio will soon be facing
the same issues.
Texas should continue past policies
that encourage the development of its
transportation system in the most
efficient manner with as much
participation with local agencies as
possible. There are better options
available to the state to improve our
mobility problems. A gasoline tax pegged
to inflation with bonding ability, along
with efficient toll roads with local
control, would go a long way; and we
would not be sending our money to
overseas investors — money that should
be invested locally, which is what the
Harris County Toll Road Authority does.
Selling our state highways to anyone is
terrible public policy. It's up to the
Legislature to make some changes in the
law.
Lindsay, a Republican, has
represented State Senate District 7 in
Houston since 1996. Prior to that, he
was Harris County judge for 20 years.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/4451023.html
