Secret plan to toll existing interstates ignites outrage
"SECRET" TxDOT SCHEME UNMASKED BY NEWSRADIO WOAI SPARKS OUTRAGE
Newsradio 1200 WOAI's exclusive report last week revealing a secret plan by TEX-DOT to attempt to put toll booths on existing highways has rallied anti-toll opposition.
By Michael Main
WOAI Radio
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
TEX-DOT may have cut its own throat with the public as a result of that "secret plan" to try to toll existing highways first revealed by Newsradio 1200 WOAI last week.
Members of the San Antonio Toll Party, an anti-toll group, say public outrage is growing exponentially as a result of the revelations that TxDOT has been quietly lobbying congress to try to "buy back" federal highways in Texas so the state could slap toll booths up on them.
Additionally several lawmakers at both the state and federal level, who were not necessarily outspoken critics of toll roads before, say they'll now sponsor legislation to block any tolling of existing highways. They add TxDOT's credibility may be damaged beyond repair even among toll road supporters, since many of those toll road advocates had been fervently reassuring the public that no existing highways would ever be tolled in Texas, only to find that TxDOT was working behind their backs to do just that. Some toll road advocates tell Newsradio 1200 WOAI they feel they were "stabbed in the back" and "left twisting in the wind" when the story broke.