Texas Toll Ban

An article in the Austin American Statesman entitled, Texas Toll Ban Added to Transportation Bill, outlines a few key amendments that the Texas government is trying to implement in order to slow down the amount of toll roads being put up in our state.

The ban proposed by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, as an amendment to the $106 billion dollar spending bill already passed by the Senate, states that no toll can be built on existing Texas roadways. While this does not stop the Texas Department of Transportation from building new toll roads, it does keep TxDot from using existing routes as part of those roads. (For all of us from Round Rock, that means 620 would not have been used as part of 45.)

Another interesting fact about this article is that another bill added to the tail end of the Transportation Bill, was the banning of "Mexican trucks" from U.S. roadways. What exactly they consider a "Mexican truck" would be interesting to know.

None of us like paying to drive on a road, so it's important to know what they are doing with the new toll roads, exactly how much money will be spent on them, and how much our taxes will increase because of them.

To all my readers, check this information out at: http://www.statesman.com/news/content/gen/ap/TX_Toll_Roads.html?