Good lord. Read the entire exchange, and don't just cherry-pick a few lines you think make your point.
Transcript:
THE PRESS: Mr. Lopez, in looking at the proposal, are you planning on having any type of non-compete clause for future expansion of I-35 in order to attract as much traffic as possible to the Trans-Texas Corridor 35?
MR. LOPEZ: I guess this is more a question for the Commission or the officers of the state. What I can answer to you is that in our -- in the terms of engagement that have been presented to the would-be winner, there's no restriction on -- or there's no limit to competition from existing roads or no limit to other roads being built and things like that.
(Translation, the Cintra rep says there would be no restriction on competition.)
Transcript Continued:
THE PRESS: Including expansions from four lanes to six, or --
MR. WILLIAMSON: Well, let me answer that question, while also asking Tony's question.
We're on the record, Ben and Tony, as you know, of saying we fully expect that there will be limitations on our ability, at some point in the future, to compete with the road he is going to spend his money on and pay us for. We believe that profit is a decent and honorable pursuit and that for him to pay his franchise taxes in Texas, he's going to have to generate some profits.
We're not afraid of that. He offers to take us out of the risk business in offering an alternative corridor parallel to 35, and he offers us cash in exchange for that.
Now, it will be up to Commissioner Nichols and Commissioner Houghton, Ben, to see to it that staff stays within certain Commission guidelines. Among that, I'm sure, are be sure we can expand 35 to six lanes the entire length of the highway.
But all of our decisions, you have to remember, are made, not in the context of what would you like to do, Commission, but what do you have the cash to do.
And the reality, Patrick, is we don't have the money to expand Interstate 35 much bigger than six lanes. It's not -- we're in a different position than, say, the California legislature a few years ago when the Orange County issue came up. They were flush with cash and could have done a lot of things. We don't have that luxury.
As you saw from the presentation ahead of the layout, which we put out there for you to look at, Gordon, we don't have the cash to go expand Interstate 35 much beyond six lanes. So it's really not much of a consideration for us.
But even if it is, these guys are willing to build it for the taxpayers of the state so that we don't have to raise their taxes, pay us additional cash so we can consider some things we might not have considered, and for that, they need to have an expectation they can generate a profit, and we shouldn't be ashamed of that.
(Translation, Williamson says TxDOT is not afraid to compete with Cintra, they plan to expand the entire length of I-35 to six lanes, and while they would like to do more, the only limitation on them is the resources they have available for expansion beyond 6 total lanes, which would be a HUGE improvement.)