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January 30, 2006

To the Editors,

Apropos of Ben Wear's column today [1], when Texas 130 was proposed it was as a I-35 bypass. We then learned, after it was under construction, that it was intended to open up more of Central Texas to development.

When the initial push for toll roads occurred, we were told that State would provide 'seed' funding for any region willing to build toll roads and were warned that a reluctance to do so would mean that money allocated to our region would be diverted to regions more willing to build them.

We then learned that Central Texas was apparently the only region to take this bait and thus we'll have more toll roads than Houston, Dallas / Ft. Worth or San Antonio.

We were also told that toll roads were good because the profit from them would allow non-tolled roads to be built and maintained.

In Mr. Wear's 1/23 column we learned that this might not be the case.

I think a cry of "Foul" for the broken promises and misleading communications is more warranted than one due to any ambiguity in Mr. Wear's column regarding accountability of a private operator to set toll rates.

[1] Toll road rules aren't shady, just unclear, Ben Wear, Austin American-Statesman, Monday, January 30, 2006.