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SH 130 bankruptcy

  • Link to article here.

    Texas’ first foreign-owned toll road handed to its creditors
    By Terri Hall
    August 15, 2016
    Selous Foundation for Public Policy Research

    It was so predictable. The people of Texas revolted against former Governor Rick Perry’s grand network of toll roads, once dubbed the Trans Texas Corridor, and many grassroots groups that sprung up to oppose it predicted its eventual demise. The press, always eager to jump on the ribbon cuttings, seldom show you the angling inside bankruptcy court, yet that’s where State Highway 130 Concession Company ended up. As part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Spain-based Cintra and San Antonio-based Zachry ceded the delinquent toll project to its creditors Friday.

    The southern 41-mile stretch of SH 130, a bypass designed to avoid Austin traffic from Mustang Ridge to Seguin, opened with much fanfare in November of 2012, including an appearance by Perry who hailed this first public private partnership (or P3) as highway nirvana and ‘visionary.’ But crony capitalism is as old as dirt and taxpayers didn’t see it as anything other than graft.

  • Article posted in Empower Texans Scorecard here.

    Sneaky SH 130 Expansion Defies Abbott/Patrick Pledge
    New toll lanes deceptively approved for SH 130
    By JoAnn Fleming, Executive Director, Grassroots America – We the People PAC and
    Terri Hall, Founder/Director, Texans for Toll-Free Highways PAC
    May 2, 2018
    Empower Texans Scorecard

    Here we go again! Another toll road expansion gets to hopscotch ahead of the state’s major congestion priorities such as I-35 in Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio. The Texas Transportation Commission just approved spending $36.7 million in toll revenues to add another toll lane to the state operated section of SH 130 from SH 45N to Hwy 290 (the southern 41 miles is operated by a private corporation that emerged the winner in bankruptcy courtdespite the promise it would return to the public if it went bankrupt).  More broken bureaucratic promises – shocking, right?

    Buried in the commission agenda was a nebulous, generalized agenda item 3(a): ‘The construction of highways and other transportation facilities’ (see attached itemized list). After searching through 21 pages of projects, the Commission expects the public to discern what’s going on when it gives no project description and merely lists how much money the Commission is approving for each project. The word ‘toll’ is nowhere to be found, unlike past Commission agendas that clearly delineate toll projects under separate agenda items and have a specific minute order with detailed information about the project and the origin of the funds.

  • Zero: Money owed taxpayers for SH 130 toll road erased by bankruptcy court
    By Terri Hall
    July 8, 2017

    The defunct SH 130 tollway just emerged from bankruptcy court and the news isn’t good for taxpayers. In 2007, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) entered into a Comprehensive Development Agreement, or public private partnership, with SH 130 Concession Company, a subsidiary of Spain-based Cintra and Zachry Toll Road 56, which had ownership dispersed among Australian and many other foreign entities. The 41-mile southern stretch of SH 130 opened in November 2012, designed to be a bypass around congested downtown Austin. But the traffic never materialized and the private concession company sought bankruptcy protection in March 2016. According to the terms that emerged from bankruptcy court, all of the private entity’s $1.4 billion debt was wiped away, leaving federal taxpayers left holding the bag for the $430 million federally-backed Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) loan given to the private entities.

    Texas taxpayers feel betrayed. Former Texas Transportation Commission Chairman Ric Williamson swore under oath before the Senate Transportation Committee on March 1, 2007, that if the private entities went bankrupt, the Texas taxpayers would get the road back free and clear of any debt. Free and clear means no debt obligations, and therefore no need to continue to charge tolls for usage. However, that didn’t happen. Instead, new owners were brought in, Strategic Value Partners, $260 million in new debt was issued, and the new private company will continue to charge tolls until the contract is up in 2062 — for a road that now owes virtually no debt compared to its original $1.4 billion.

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