Thanks for the bumps and good words!
Muawiyah, I’ve been a little ambivalent about toll roads.
I like the idea those using the road paying them off as we go and routinely use the loop around the bottle-neck in Austin to go north toward Dallas.
Privatization has its limits, though. Businesses have to make a profit while the State needs to pay bills. I don’t like the no-compete and 50 year compacts that we made with Cintra. If they’re such a great idea, I wonder why the State couldn’t do the job ourselves.
I *really* didn’t like the proposal to skip Customs until Kansas that some of the early TTC plans included. I want the jobs in Texas and the control as close to the border as possible.
However, that’s all very old news - “we the people” were heard and lessons were learned.
Under Texas Law (See Constitution, Article III, Section 49a and 49j and Article VIII, Section 6 & 7), Texas is limited as to how much debt it can acquire that is NOT self-satisfying.
If we need a major road, and the general funds are not available, a toll must pay for it.