The result six years later: at least $2.2 million in state funds spent, but no toll road.
In Tyler, local officials in 2004 vowed to build a $248 million outer loop to absorb traffic and rake in tolls from a county of about 220,000 people.
The result: Slightly more than half of the beltway is completed. But the state wrote off a $55 million loan that was supposed to be repaid with toll dollars.
In San Antonio, authorities pushed to build 50 miles of toll lanes stretching across the traffic-choked north side of Bexar County.
The result 11 years later: zero miles completed. Flawed planning and bloated administrative costs led to a complete overhaul of the agency in charge.
That agency is a regional mobility authority, a locally based transportation agency that can’t levy taxes and isn’t run by elected officials.
Counties, including Grayson and Smith, set up regional mobility authorities to use bonds to build transportation projects and pay them off with tolls. The theory is that the tolls stay home, boosting area economies.
But nearly 15 years after the Texas Legislature changed state law so the agencies could be created, most of the nine RMAs have struggled to live up to their ambitions while burning through at least $1 billion in tax dollars, an investigation by The Dallas Morning News has found.
The RMAs have spent at least $220 million on overhead costs, and not all RMAs have been audited, according to The News’ analysis. They’ve spent about $864 million in state and federal funds, despite the Texas Legislature originally hoping the projects would be financed almost exclusively by tolls.
