I don't like the idea of toll roads, but all the towns east of 35, at least from Waco to Austin, are drying up and blowing away. Many of them are just a little ways from being ghost towns, and 35 is turning into a quagmire (we need to pull out). I suspect that by 2020, there will be a big L starting at the Oklahoma border and going down to San Antonio, then going east to Houston that will be entirely urban. Some major highways HAVE to be built. Austin is practically undriveable now, because the citizens denied the need for improved roads for thirty years. While I'm not nuts about Perry's solution, Kinky's is "have another beer and don't worry about it" and Strayhorn's is a solution that would cost billions more, provide less new roads, and she hasn't proposed a way to pay for it (gosh, I wonder if she might be thinking STATE INCOME TAX?)
Toll roads are a pain in the butt, but nobody is being forced to use them. And construction costs for freeways has to be paid by all of us, whether we use them or not.
So a concept that the actual users pay for the road is not that unreasonable.
The land grab argument is silly unless those who use it are willing to declare that Texas never needs another road, ever. As long as new roads require land to build them on, it's a necessary tradeoff.