The dirty secret about the toll roads in Austin is, they are owned and operated by a company from Spain named Cintra.
I installed a lot of IT equipment for them a few years back and they spent money like it was growing on trees.
Of course. it is a government granted monopoly to operate like Rhine barons.
I remember when the Sunshine Bridge in Louisiana was toll. After it was paid for, it became free. Heck, Louisiana has free ferries across the Mississippi. Pennsylvania sold one of their toll roads to a Spanish company. What that means is that the (Democrat) politicians in power then got all of that one time payout to spend and now drivers forever have to pay tolls to a foreign company. Sounds like the same thing happened in Austin.