02.28.09
Another bad idea from TxDOT for stimulus money
Via the HChron, $700 million eyed for toll projects. That’s more than one fourth of the $2.6 billion for transportation that Texas is slated to receive going to tolls.
The Texas Department of Transportation has set aside more than $700 million in economic stimulus funds for toll road projects across the state, sparking criticism and questions about whether the pay-to-drive roads are an appropriate use of the federal dollars.
The toll roads — including the Grand Parkway in Harris County — are among 21 major projects up for a vote at next week’s meeting of the Texas Transportation Commission in Austin. The commission had planned to vote on the list this week but delayed its consideration a week after at least one state legislator complained the money was being spent without enough input.
The delay has given opponents an opportunity to organize a lobbying effort aimed at persuading state leaders to withhold stimulus money from toll road projects.
“It’s a total rip-off,” said Terri Hall, director of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom, a nonprofit opposed to toll roads. “That’s not how the money is supposed to be used.”
TxDOT leaders and transportation planners defend the projects, saying all of them, including the toll roads, are important to their regions and offer tangible economic and mobility benefits.
“I think it’s unfortunate that the discussion about these funds has eclipsed the broader discussion about the state’s transportation needs,” TxDOT spokesman Chris Lippincott said.
The discussion should be on reducing gridlock now, said Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, whose criticism led the commission to postpone its vote. Toll roads should be built later with state money, not onetime federal stimulus funds, he said.
“The Legislature continues to vote for toll moratoriums,” he said, “and TxDOT keeps ignoring us.”
Again, wasn’t Deirdre Delisi supposed to help turn around TxDOT’s image? Oh well. This is a bad idea. Here’s an idea, if stimulus money is going to be used on toll raods, maybe they shouldn’t be toll roads any longer.