Sen. Kirk Watson announces the filing of SB 688 - Tolls Transparency and Accountability Act, which you may have read about in today’s news (Austin American Statesman).   A copy of the bill text in .pdf format is available at http://catransco.org/Documents/Legis/State/SB00668.pdf

Briefly, the bill would:

  • Increase public accountability by requiring that every entity making appointments to the governing board of a toll entity appoint at least one elected official.
  • Create a financial review committee – consisting of five members of a region’s MPO and five members of a region’s toll entity – and require yearly reports on the toll entity’s finances.
  • Forbid TXDOT from showing preferences to different types of toll road entities in granting rights-of-way and easements for toll roads.
  • Require toll road entities such as the CTRMA, and including TXDOT, to refund money contributed for toll projects by local jurisdictions unless voters or the jurisdiction’s governing board (typically, county commissioners or city council members) publicly approve the contribution.
  • Require toll road entities to get approval from a region’s MPOs before they
    • sell a toll project,
    • contract with another entity to operate the project,
    • increase tolls,
    • refinance debt on the project,
    • continue tolling after debt is paid off,
    • spend surplus revenue on another project, or
    • begin preliminary engineering or environmental studies for a project.