DALLAS (AP) - A review of regional transportation agencies that were established following a change in state law 15 years ago finds most have struggled to meet expectations while spending at least $1 billion in taxpayer money.
Nine agencies known as regional mobility authorities, or RMAs, were established in Texas to use bonds to build transportation projects and pay them off with tolls.
But a review by The Dallas Morning News (https://bit.ly/1FIBNnP ) shows that RMAs have spent some $864 million in state and federal money, despite the Texas Legislature originally intending that projects be financed by tolls. They’ve also spent at least $220 million on overhead costs.
Some projects highlight the disconnect, including in Grayson County, where authorities wanted to extend the Dallas North Tollway to Oklahoma and keep the toll dollars in their community. But after six years, at least $2.2 million in state money has been spent - and no toll road built.
Officials in San Antonio had pushed to build about 50 miles of toll roads across the congested north side of Bexar County, but more than a decade later, nothing has been constructed. Poor planning and rising administrative costs have led to an overhaul of the agency in charge, the newspaper reported.
In some cases, RMAs have financed projects by siphoning tax dollars from elsewhere, not by using tolls. Other roads were completed because of federal money that came into Texas as part of previous national efforts to jump-start an ailing economy. At least $604 million in federal stimulus dollars flowed to Texas.
Agency leaders defend their record by pointing to $1.5 billion in projects that would not otherwise have been built.
“There’s a real place for RMAs in the rural areas as well as the big cities,” said Delbert Horton, chairman of the Sulphur River RMA, which covers four counties in northeast Texas.
But others contend that the regional authorities are operated like fiefdoms, with little accountability to taxpayers.
“There might be some that we need to look at abolishing,” said state Rep. Lyle Larson of San Antonio.
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Information from: The Dallas Morning News, https://www.dallasnews.com
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