Posted on 02/02/2006 4:54:31 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
State Rep. Mike Krusee sought me out last week to say he didn't particularly care for my Jan. 23 column.
Krusee, a Williamson County Republican who chairs the House Transportation Committee, hated the headline: "Hey, buddy, wanna buy a toll road?"
He said, with some justification, that it implied something crooked was going on.
But Krusee especially didn't like the last sentence.
In a quick discussion of who might get to set toll rates on a privately run toll road, I pointed out that Texans don't vote on who serves on the board of directors for Cintra.
Cintra is the Spanish company that, with minority partner Zachry Construction of San Antonio, will build a toll road alternative to Interstate 35 and operate it for the next 50 years.
Foul, Krusee said.
The Legislature last year, he pointed out, passed a statute, HB 2702, preventing Cintra or any other private toll road operator from imposing whatever toll rates it pleases.
Fair enough.
But the changes in HB 2702 are, uh, vague. What the bill said was that if the state or other Texas governments (such as a regional mobility authority) make an agreement for a private company to run a turnpike, the government must "approve a methodology" for setting or changing those tolls.
That's it. No guidance on what that methodology might be. With the forbearance of the Texas Transportation Commission, Cintra could in theory set toll rates based on a percentage of the passing yards the Longhorns get against OU each year.
Unlikely, sure. But possible under the law.
The actual method that I've heard officials toss around would be to tie toll rates to some sort of acceptable rate of return for the company's investment.
Sounds reasonable. But in practice, that would create a very large and complex black box of accounting that the public would have a hard time scrutinizing.
By the way, it's worth pointing out that we voters likewise won't get a chance to elect those who set rates on publicly run toll roads.
Rates for the three toll roads being built by the state north and east of Austin are under the control of the Texas Transportation Commission. And the board of the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority will set rates on U.S. 183-A, the toll road that agency is building in Cedar Park and Leander.
Those boards are appointed, not elected. Appointed by elected officials, to be sure.
But if you hate toll rates on Texas 130, you won't be able to fire Chairman Ric Williamson or the other four commissioners. Only the governor can do that, and he's hard to fire. Just ask Tony Sanchez.
And then there are managed lanes, where toll rates can vary by the minute based on traffic. You'd have to fire a computer in that case. Very sticky.
Anyway, my apologies, Rep. Krusee. Cintra-Zachry will indeed have a leash on it.
Just how long and how strong that leash will be, however, won't be clear until the state and Cintra make that toll rate methodology public. And until someone explains that method to the rest of us.
Getting There appears Mondays. For questions, tips or story ideas, contact Getting There at 445-3698 or bwear@statesman.com.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Save your pennies, invest in the right companies, and you, too, might someday own a Texas toll road. Or at least a few feet of one.
Adjusting to the idea that in the future most new Texas expressways will be toll roads has been tough enough. Now it appears that a good number of those roads might be in private hands.
Welcome to "U.S. 183, presented by Tostitos!"
The state, as most people know, is working out a deal with the Spanish company Cintra (and its San Antonio minority partner Zachry Construction Corp.) to build a 300-mile alternative to Interstate 35.
But Harris County is listening to companies interested in paying it billions for a long-term lease of the county's lucrative, 83-mile toll road system. Cintra-Zachry has also made a bid to build and run 47 miles of new toll roads in San Antonio.
Officials here in Austin, including state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Williamson County, say they are open to the idea of selling the 66 miles of toll roads under construction on Austin's north and east sides. And, oh yes, the original plan for expanding Capital of Texas Highway (Loop 360) involved a long-term concession agreement with a private operator.
And that's just what we know of now.
"Texas is open for business," said the opening slide in a Texas Department of Transportation workshop put on last week for an overflow crowd of industry contractors, including toll road companies. The Texas Transportation Commission makes no bones about it: It wants companies to come to Texas, wallets open, and build or buy toll roads.
"We're prepared to make sure you're rewarded for taking on that risk," commission Chairman Ric Williamson told the crowd.
That potential reward is the nub.
One of the primary sales points for toll roads has been that once the turnpikes are in place, with forevermore toll charges, the profits would be plowed back into the road system. The turnpikes would become unceasing fountains of transportation cash that would allow Texas to close what Williamson says is an $86 billion funding gap over the next quarter-century, and maybe build some passenger rail systems to boot.
So, if we sell the fountains now, we'd be flooded with transportation cash for projects, but we'd lose the future cash flow. The toll road operators, meanwhile — no fools they — would certainly do everything they could to pay Texas less than what those roads will eventually generate in revenue.
That margin, the profit, is money that would go to their stockholders, not Texas roads.
"That could go both ways," Krusee said, noting that the roads might underperform and thus swing the transactions to Texas' favor. And if the state gets big money now, Krusee said, more roads could be built faster, and the state would see an economic development benefit from that acceleration.
Maybe so. But there's also the ticklish question of how much autonomy private operators would have in setting toll rates. Last I checked, Texans don't get to vote on who serves on the Cintra board of directors.
Trans-Texas Corridor PING!
What I liked is this line: "And then there are managed lanes, where toll rates can vary by the minute based on traffic."
One could, theoretically enter the lane at one toll rate and find the toll taker at the other end is an Arab and wants your daughter - Oops, make that your son, as part of the toll.
I think I can live without variable rate tolls, just as I have lived without variable rate mortgages.
Finally, Texas is making the same mistake. Hahahahahaha.
Once again, if everyone hates them so much, elect someone who will get rid of them.
"Once again, if everyone hates them so much, elect someone who will get rid of them."
Yeah, that's worked in Congress. /sarc
The Legislature last year, he pointed out, passed a statute, HB 2702, preventing Cintra or any other private toll road operator from imposing whatever toll rates it pleases.
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So, who owns the road then, the private owner or the STATE? You cannot own something you do not fully control.
of possible interest:
http://www.neoperspectives.com/transportation_socialism.htm
Thanks for the ping!
BTTT
I'm not from Texas, so I could'nt "elect someone else" if I wanted to. I'm from Oklahoma (living in AZ).
I think it's great Texas is going to stupidly shackle itself with toll roads like Oklahoma did in the 50's. Oklahoma used to be a great state, with Tulsa the "oil capital of the world" and top box office Broadway plays named after it. But they stifled their transportation system and now see where their economy has taken them.
Texas and Oklahoma BOTH have aspirations to be New Jersey.
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