"How is the taxpayer subsidizing this when the money for construction is being put up by Cintra/Zachary?"
Go here: On page 3 of 3 is a paragraph explaining the taxpayer will subsidize the company. The paragraph starts with "Our team....
http://www.keeptexasmoving.org/pdfs/projects/ttc35/fact%20sheet%20-%20Cintra-Zachry%20-%20031105%20FINAL.pdf
Post this paragraph if you will. I am not computer savy.
Do you not expect the taxpayer to pay for some items when the state is involved?.... How about land, how about TXDOT employees salaries, surveryors, Lawyers, equipment, office space, utilites, etc.... Did you think all this was free?
The $1.3 billion Cintra/Zachary will invest in this project to construct some 40 miles of roadway doesn't come from the taxpayers. Even the para you've hung your hat on in several post doesn't even allude to the taxpayer paying for the project but clearly states they will have very little investment.
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Our team will get needed roads built more quickly at very little cost to taxpayers and
even expect to return money to the state. Our road projects utilize the latest design and
construction techniques to help assure safety, environmental quality and convenience for
motorists and surrounding communities.
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Our team will get needed roads built more quickly at very little cost to taxpayers and even expect to return money to the state. Our road projects utilize the latest design and construction techniques to help assure safety, environmental quality and convenience for motorists and surrounding communities.
So if the state pays $1 and the tollway company pays the other $99 of the construction costs the state is subsidizing the tollway company? Because that is the approximate ratio (actually smaller) of the total costs of the Trans-Texas Corridor (not the TX130 project that is the subject of this article) that the state and Cintra will pay on the TTC. A few million paid for by the state for studies, $6 billion land and construction costs paid by Cintra, plus Cintra will pay the state $1.2 billion a concession fee (which the state will use for connecting roads and the leftover to anything else on TXDOT's list anywhere in the state.) The tradeoff is Cintra gets a 50-year operation and maintenance concession to collect tolls, but the land and facility is owned by the state.
Basic math says that in no way is a subsidy from the state. Quite the opposite.