MoPac toll project to profit off DOUBLE TAXATION
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First MoPac was to become a privatized toll project, fraught with problems like loss of sovereignty over public infrastructure, punitive toll rates in the hands of unaccountable private interests, non-compete agreements, and granting a state-sanctioned monopoly to a corporation without competitive bidding. Now, Austin transportation boards want to take TAX dollars to expand MoPac, but still charge tolls for a road that would already be paid for with TAX money! So it's cede the road to a private corporation or get DOUBLE TAXED, these are not options. Fix MoPac and keep it a FREEway!
MoPac loan deal gets tentative nod
By Ben Wear
Updated: 5:14 a.m. Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Local transportation officials made a preliminary decision Monday night to direct most of a $136.6 million windfall to the MoPac Boulevard express lane project.
But the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization board, anxious to have money for future Interstate 35 projects, conditioned its support for a final June vote on exacting better terms for what amounts to a loan to the local toll agency building the project. The board's executive committee will negotiate final terms of an agreement with the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority.
Last week the authority suggested that the Texas Department of Transportation money be channeled to the toll agency's pending project to add a lane to each side of MoPac from Lady Bird Lake to Parmer Lane. They suggested that the agency could pay the money back over 22 years at 3 percent interest to the board, which would then use the money for other projects.
But Monday, some planning organization board members suggested that interest rate is too low, and the payoff too slow. Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the mobility authority, said the agency welcomes discussion of changes. Final terms will be worked out in the coming weeks before a May public hearing and a final vote June 11.
The new lanes would be open only to those paying tolls, transit buses and emergency vehicles, and would have fluctuating tolls to keep congestion down and speeds reliably up in those lanes.
The authority has said the project would cost about $250 million. But that estimate was based on borrowing the bulk of the money on the bond market and thus included money to cover early debt payments and other bond requirements. Officials said that with the new cash from TxDOT, the project could be built for about $200 million and probably be commenced six months earlier than planned.
The project would fit criteria that top TxDOT officials outlined for distributing $2 billion in cash that the agency recently said was newly available. Primarily, the department requires projects ready for construction, or nearly so, because of a September federal deadline for deciding how to disburse the $2 billion, and that would address traffic tie-ups on the state's 100 most congested highways.
North MoPac is No. 35 on that list, according to planning organization documents. The project should get final environmental clearance by August, and the bidding process for final design and construction could begin later this week, Heiligenstein said.
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MoPac express toll lane project could get $137 million TxDOT windfall
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 9:46 p.m. Monday, April 2, 2012
Published: 8:59 p.m. Monday, April 2, 2012
The MoPac toll lane project could get an additional $136.6 million from the Texas Department of Transportation, money that officials say would accelerate the start of the project by at least six months.
Under the proposal, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority would pay back the money at 3 percent interest over the next 22 years to the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization, which would then parcel it out to other area road projects.
The unusual arrangement would secure highway money for the area that TxDOT might otherwise direct elsewhere in the state because of tight federal deadlines. This approach, mobility authority officials said Monday, could save the agency tens of millions of dollars in interest and other costs associated with borrowing money through the bond market.
But it also presents a public relations problem as the CAMPO board, which is made up of local elected officials, would be abetting the mobility authority as it charges tolls on a road that essentially would already be paid for.
Combining the new money with $70 million in taxpayer funds that TxDOT already committed to the project would mean that the added toll lanes on each side of MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) would be built with cash.
Toll projects typically involve a substantial amount of borrowed money, which is then paid back by the tolls from drivers. Under this scenario, the toll money would all be profit initially, other than the relatively low percentage needed to cover operating costs.
Mobility authority officials said the terms are still in flux. "We've just thrown something very general on the table to open discussion," mobility authority Communications Director Steve Pustelnyk said. But the agency would be incurring debt in the formal of a written agreement with the governing board of CAMPO.
To meet federal and TxDOT deadlines, CAMPO Executive Director Maureen McCoy said, the CAMPO board would have to act on the MoPac proposal or an alternative by mid-June. The federally created agency creates Central Texas' long-range transportation plan and has some direct authority over distributing money.
"It's as if it were a mortgage," said Mike Heiligenstein, executive director of the mobility authority.
He added that the 3 percent suggested interest rate is half or less of what the agency would pay bond investors for an added fourth "express" lane on each side of MoPac from Lady Bird Lake to Parmer Lane.
The tolls on these lanes will have a second purpose. The mobility authority plans to make toll rates fluctuate minute-by-minute, charging more as the lanes begin to see congestion. Higher tolls at those time would, in theory, discourage some potential users and thus ensure that speeds remain at 50 mph or more in the express lanes for cars and Capital Metro buses.
The money became available several weeks ago when TxDOT's executive team determined that it had about $2 billion more for road projects that previously thought. About $750 million of that is federal funding, however, with a deadline of Sept. 30, the last day of Uncle Sam's current fiscal year. By then, TxDOT must decide which projects meet federal readiness criteria.
The TxDOT hierarchy has said it wants the money spent on a few large projects, preferably on the state's 100 most congested roads, McCoy said.
The Austin area is conspicuously short of such projects teed up for development. The exception is the MoPac express lane project, which is nearing the end of a federally required environmental assessment.
Officials expect to get approval of that document as soon as August, and that would trigger a six-month period in which approval may be challenged in court.
If the mobility authority were to borrow the bulk of the money on the bond market, it probably would have to wait until that lawsuit window has closed. But if the project is built purely with TxDOT funds, then the mobility authority might be able to begin construction during or shortly after that six-month period.
Heiligenstein said finding contractors to do the final design and build the project has just begun. He said construction could start as early as summer 2013. Earlier estimates had work beginning in 2014. Construction should take about two years.
If Austin misses the Sept. 30 deadline, officials said, that doesn't mean that the 11-county Austin district of TxDOT would forfeit rights to its share of the $2 billion windfall. The money would in effect be lent to other parts of the state, which would then owe the Austin district like amounts of future funding.
But officials said that the vagaries of TxDOT finances could mean a loss of some of Austin's share, or at least a delay in getting it, once the money leaves the area.
"The (CAMPO) board didn't seem very enthused with that option, and I don't blame them," said Carlos Lopez, TxDOT's Austin district engineer.