12.27.07
TxDOT Played Sen. Watson/CAMPO
Ben Wear fills us in on CAMPO Chair and State Sen. Kirk Watson’s attempt to get an explanation from TxDOT about paying their share of the new toll roads around Austin. Here’s the link, Watson still has questions about tollway money.
State Sen. Kirk Watson earlier this month had asked for answers from the Texas Department of Transportation about why the agency is several hundred million dollars short for Austin toll road projects. Based on Watson’s response to TxDOT’s Dec. 21 answer, he isn’t satisfied with what he’s heard so far.
Aside from the substance of the six-page TxDOT letter on its financial challenges, which Watson deemed “very disappointing” in an e-mail to other local transportation leaders, Watson also found the timing suspicious. His office received the letter about 5 p.m. Friday as the bulk of Texans — and media — hunkered down for four days of travel and Christmas festivities.
The TxDOT letter was shared with reporters three days later, on Christmas Eve.
“I’m concerned that the delay was intended to postpone broadcast of this letter to a time where as few people as possible would be aware of it,” Watson, D-Austin, said in his e-mail to members of the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board. Watson is chairman of the CAMPO board.
Disappointing, concerned? Sure hope in reality he’s pissed. They pulled one of the oldest news tricks in the book, releasing bad news on Friday. But this time they not only released it on Friday, but the Friday before the Christmas break. Which is like the Friday of all Friday’s. And then they didn’t even answer the questions Kirk wanted answered. But they did give him an answer.
The TxDOT letter, signed by Executive Director Amadeo Saenz, declines to answer the Watson questions point by point, saying “a simple question and answer format does not convey the whole story.”
Saenz then walks through the financial challenges facing the department: lost federal funds, maintenance needs, inflation and the Legislature’s decision this year to limit the agency’s ability to reach long-term toll road leases with private companies.
“We believed (and still do) that … all Texans would benefit from such an arrangement,” Saenz wrote about private tollway contracts.
Go make a deal with a corporation to build you toll roads. Raise you hand if you didn’t see that coming. Shocking that Ric Williamson and TxDOT would have done something like this. Maybe Watson and CAMPO should have consulted with Sen. Carona before dealing with Williamson and TxDOT.
Maybe now Sen. Watson and all his CAMPO cohorts will realize that they can either start pushing for raising and indexing the gas tax or there will be no other way than selling/leasing all our new highways to corporations.